Delay Hits First Planned Trial Over Alleged Time Card Fraud
WC Monitor
7/3/2014
The first of three trials related to alleged timecard fraud at Hanford will not start next week as planned. The only defendant remaining in the group of two that had been scheduled to go to trial July 9 will undergo a competency evaluation, Judge Edward Shea ruled this week in Eastern Washington U.S. District Court. Shea expects to decide in August if Stephanie Livesey is competent to assist her attorney in her defense. If he decides she is, she will go to trial in September during the time that had been set aside for the second group of 10 defendants accused of aiding timecard fraud under former Hanford tank farms contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group. Attorneys for the second group of defendants—five former workers who supervised hourly employees—should be prepared to go to trial in September if Livesey is not tried then, Shea said. Their trial is expected to focus on their role in obtaining authorized overtime for hourly workers from upper managers.
Livesey and Glenda Davis are former radiological control supervisors at the Hanford tank farms, whom the prosecution has said they had a role in approving the timecards of radiological control technicians, including nine hourly workers who have made plea deals. Davis also had been scheduled to go to trial July 9, but pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to employee timecards. Livesey has been unable to assist in preparing for the trial since the unexpected death of her son in May, said Bob Thompson, her attorney, in a court document asking to delay her trial. He said then that he would file further medical and psychological reports, which have been sealed. The third group of defendants in the case, three former upper managers, now is scheduled to go to trial in February.
Prosecutors Negotiating Deals With Two Individuals
As other matters were discussed during this week’s hearing, Tyler Tornabene, assistant U.S. attorney, said deals are being negotiated with two individuals. Documents filed by the defense indicate that the federal government has approached Vincent Chapman, a radiological control technician, with an offer. When CH2M Hill reached a settlement agreement to pay $18.5 million to the federal government in spring 2013, the federal government reserved the right to pursue cases against workers, including about two dozen who were called out in the settlement agreement. Ten of those workers have been charged—the nine who are going to trial and Davis. Chapman also was on the settlement agreement list, and he is named as a witness in Livesey’s trial.
Tornabene sent Chapman a letter April 15 that was obtained by the defense and filed in federal court. It accused him of submitting false overtime claims between fall 1999 and fall 2008 and threatened to file a civil lawsuit against him. He was paid at least $107,632, which the the Department of Energy would not have paid if it had known that overtime hours were fraudulent, Tornabene said in the letter. The United States is entitled to seek at least three times that amount, $322,897, in a civil action, the letter said. But Tornabene offered Chapman a chance to resolve the issue before a suit is filed, which likely would include repaying the $107,632, the letter said. Attorneys for the defense requested more information on any settlement talks the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Eastern Washington was conducting, but Shea said that was not relevant until any deal is completed.
