DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050650

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   74 lines

CRUMPLER CASE WOES BLAMED ON BUNGLING BY EMPLOYEES WITNESSES ARE NOW FINGERING A FORMER SERVICE ADVISER OF THE DEALERSHIP.

An attorney for Bob Crumpler on Thursday portrayed the embattled Nissan dealer as a victim of his own employees' bungling and scheming - not a businessman who sought to defraud his auto maker.

Earlier this week, witnesses for Nissan Motor Corp. said Crumpler had ordered employees to bilk the auto maker. But on Thursday, other witnesses were fingering a former service adviser who allegedly billed Crumpler for extra labor hours while giving customers discounts.

``In blunt terms, Mr. Crumpler got ripped off by his own'' employee, said Joseph Mauer, a mechanic at Bob Crumpler's Denbigh Nissan dealership in Newport News.

Mauer spoke during a state Department of Motor Vehicles hearing in Hampton that will help determine whether Crumpler can keep his Nissan franchise. The auto maker has been trying to distance itself from the dealer since December, when a video of Crumpler making racial comments aired nationwide.

The hearings continue today.

Mauer and other employees said they began to get suspicious of the service adviser after he and his ``team'' of workers consistently outperformed other service teams at the dealership. The dealership divides its service employees into teams that compete to outproduce each other.

The service adviser could not be reached Thursday.

Crumpler's chief financial officer, Robert Pendergrass, said there was some knowledge of the adviser's actions. He said the adviser's pay was cut to reflect some of the dealership's losses.

Mauer's comments contrasted with previous testimony from Jack Peirson, a former parts manager who said Crumpler ordered employees to defraud Nissan.

Peirson said the dealer directed employees to remove parts from Nissan-owned vehicles, replacing them with damaged equipment from his own automobiles. Crumpler, he said, also told employees to perform free repairs on a customer's truck, which had 90,000 miles on it, and then bill the manufacturer for warranty work.

Mauer said Peirson left the dealership in a huff, promising revenge on Crumpler.

``He told me he was going to bring him down,'' he said. ``He said he had some dirt on Mr. Crumpler.''

Peirson said he never talked to Mauer about his departure or the reasons behind it. He also defended the former service adviser.

``They can throw dirt at him because he's not in the courtroom,'' he said. ``It's typical of Mr. Crumpler. ''

Another witness, employee Sally Baukman, said she once knowingly put an incorrect customer name on a warranty claim so that one of the dealer's cars could be repaired at Nissan's cost.

But Baukman, a service adviser, said the big boss had nothing to do with it. Rather, she said, her immediate supervisor, Ed Allison, a service manager at the time, told her to write it.

``I did what I was told to do,'' she said.

Allison is now Baukman's boyfriend. Allison also has been a no-show at the hearing, so there's a warrant out for his arrest.

Nissan's attorneys say Allison is a valuable witness. Initially, he talked freely with Nissan's people. Then he changed his mind. Nissan hasn't been able to locate him over the past several weeks, though he had been living with Baukman in recent months.

On Thursday, Baukman denied that she knew there were subpoenas out for Allison. But in discussions with reporters, she said her boyfriend's son handed her a copy of a subpoena.

Baukman said Allison had several reasons for not appearing. First, he didn't want to risk her job by testifying against Crumpler. Second, he regretted talking so freely with Nissan before, she said.

Allison also claimed that Nissan's investigator was mean, Baukman said. He threatened Allison with jail time, and said Allison would never again work for a Nissan dealer, she said.

The investigator, Thaxter Blalock Jr. of Hartfield, Va., would not comment directly on Baukman's comments.

``I have no control over what other people say,'' he said. KEYWORDS: HEARING RACISM

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