THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512090299
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Retired NASA Langley Research Center physicist Ronald A. Outlaw will pay a $2,500 fine and serve one year of probation for funneling $34,000 in government money to a company in which he had a 50 percent interest.
The sentence, which also includes 48 hours of house arrest and eight hours of community service a month for the next year, was handed down Friday by Magistrate Tommy E. Miller in federal court in Norfolk.
``You were a government employee, and you abused your office,'' Miller said. ``I don't think what you've done has been motivated by money at all. I think you were motivated by scientific achievement.''
In late September, Outlaw, 58, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of conflict of interest.
The charges stem from the development and attempted commercialization of a device known as a hyperthermal oxygen atom generator, which simulates conditions found in low-Earth orbit. The generator, invented by Outlaw, would enable scientists to gauge the effects of vacuum on spacecraft materials and structures.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury said the retired physicist illegally steered contracts to DACO Technologies, a firm Outlaw co-founded in 1992 with then-graduate research assistant Mark Davidson. Outlaw did this three times between January 1993 and January 1994, court records show.
Davidson, now at the University of Florida, was not named as a co-defendant.
Before Outlaw's sentencing, his wife and brother-in-law testified that Outlaw was devoted to science and his family. At no time, they said, would it ever have entered Outlaw's mind to break the law.
Invited by the judge to speak before sentencing, Outlaw said he was prepared for whatever verdict Miller would render.
``I've been publicly and professionally humiliated,'' he said. ``What was most important to me - my reputation - the system has taken care of that.''
In pre-sentencing remarks, Outlaw's attorney, Robert C. Nusbaum, painted a picture of a client unaware of any legal violation. Outlaw, Nusbaum said, relied on the advice of a now-retired Langley lawyer as he set up his company, making his mother-in-law the primary DACO stockholder.
Nusbaum's characterizations were strongly disputed by Salsbury, who said that if the matter had gone to trial, the government would have presented ``compelling evidence'' contradicting Nusbaum's assertions.
``As a federal employee, Dr. Outlaw should not have been making decisions on matters in which he had a financial interest,'' Salsbury said. ``The public deserves decision-making on the part of public officials which is not influenced by private interests.''
In revisions to laws concerning what's known as ``intellectual property,'' Congress has allowed government scientists to profit from inventions made while drawing a federal paycheck.
But the laws prohibit influence-peddling, or actively affecting the outcome of licensing arrangements with personal profits in mind.
The future of the oxygen generator remains in doubt. Although there is no legal or scientific reason why Outlaw, now privately employed, could not continue his work, attorney Nusbaum, in a post-hearing interview, described his client as ``the most disheartened person you'll ever meet.''
``If there was any criminal intent here, it was purely technical,'' Nusbaum said. ``The fault lies with the Langley Inspector General. They wanted to make an example out of this man.''
NASA Langley spokesman Michael Finneran said center director Paul F. Holloway had no comment on the case. by CNB