Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080211
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
2 TESTIFY AGAINST FORMER BOSS IN HOSPITAL-THEFT TRIAL
Two former employees of H&H X-Ray in Roanoke testified Wednesday they realized film that had been sold to Radford Community Hospital was being returned to the warehouse's inventory.Both were fired by David Hutchens, the firm's president, who is on trial on charges he participated with the former head of the hospital's radiology department to bilk the hospital out of film it had bought.
Hutchens and Paul Douglas Turpin of Christiansburg, both in their 40s, each were charged with 33 counts of grand larceny and one count of conspiracy to commit grand larceny for stealing supplies from the hospital during a three-year period.
Turpin, who testified against Hutchens on Tuesday, pleaded guilty to the charges last year, admitting to being involved in the theft of about $325,000 worth of film from 1988 to 1991. He will be sentenced after Hutchens' trial.
Turpin said Hutchens initiated the X-ray film scam and he agreed to participate because he owed Hutchens $2,000. Turpin testified that on 33 occasions during the three-year period he took 10 cases of X-ray film worth about $10,000 from the hospital and sold them to Hutchens for $4,000.
Eva Crowder, a purchasing agent for Hutchens' business, testified that Hutchens often returned X-ray film to the warehouse that she knew had been sold to the Radford hospital.
Crowder, who worked for H&H from October 1988 to June 1991, said she began noticing discrepancies after only a month on the job. Sometimes the inventory showed the warehouse had 30 to 50 boxes more film than it should.
She began marking boxes destined for Radford Community Hospital with her initials or other identification. Crowder testified she later would see some of the same boxes returned to the warehouse.
Hutchens "would back his car up to the garage door . . . and say `Eva, I've got some film out there for you.' " but provided no explanation of where the film came from, Crowder testified.
During an argument with Hutchens in January 1991, Crowder said she told him she knew what was going on and was tired of covering for him.
She was fired in June 1991. She told the jury Hutchens told her it was because she was pregnant and unable to do her job. But, she said, Hutchens also told her "I warned you."
Gus Necessary, a special agent with the Virginia State Police, testified that Hutchens told him it was not uncommon to trade film that had a short expiration time to clients for film that had a longer expiration date. This was an effort to get rid of short-expiration film before it expired but while it was still useable.
When a search warrant was served at the Roanoke warehouse in September 1991, Necessary said Hutchens told him there had been employee turnover at the business, but said Crowder and Nancy Young, an accounts receivable clerk, had been changing items on the computer to show there was less inventory in stock than there was.
He also suggested that employees may have been responsible for double-selling the film.
Young testified she was fired May 17, 1991, after Hutchens said her job had been eliminated.
Young saved records she said she was told to destroy, and they were used as part of the evidence Commonwealth's Attorney Randal Duncan presented Wednesday. She said film that was returned to the warehouse by Hutchens was never credited to a customer's account.
Wednesday afternoon, two people testified on Hutchens' behalf saying they were with him on days he is alleged to have met Turpin to trade film for money.
Tim Morris, service manager at H&H, testified that he marked boxes at the warehouse in April and May 1991 after hearing rumors about the film returning to the warehouse. "No case of film that I marked ever came back," he said.