DATE: Saturday, September 6, 1997           TAG: 9709060405

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   78 lines

RELUCTANT WITNESS ALTERS STORY ON BOB CRUMPLER EX-EMPLOYEE SAYS HE LIED ABOUT FRAUD, FORGED WORK ORDERS AS STATE HEARING ENDS

On March 17, James Edward Allison told an investigator that Nissan dealer Bob Crumpler directed employees to forge customers' names on repair orders and fraudulently bill the manufacturer for warranty work.

On Friday, as state hearings on Crumpler concluded, Allison's story changed. Allison said he had lied. He said Crumpler was innocent.

After failing to appear in earlier state Department of Motor Vehicles hearings, the reluctant witness was arrested in the morning and hauled in by sheriff's deputies to testify.

The former service manager at Bob Crumpler's Denbigh Nissan in Newport News stared glumly at his handcuffs and glared fiercely at Nissan's attorneys.

As Nissan's attorney, James Mollica, peppered Allison with questions, the reluctant witness took long pauses, often answering with ``I don't know'' and ``I don't remember.''

In March, however, Allison told a Nissan investigator that Crumpler had been warned of a 1995 audit by Nissan Motor Corp. Crumpler, he said, wanted to look over some warranty tickets ``and make sure we had everything up to snuff, so to speak.''

When Allison discovered that 50 or 60 repair orders had not been signed by customers, Crumpler told him to get signatures.

``And I explained to him I couldn't sign all of them, and he says get Trisha (Perkins), warranty clerk . . . and some of the other girls to sign the tickets.''

After the audit, Crumpler acted as if he didn't know anything was going on, Allison said.

On Friday, Crumpler denied knowledge of any fraud. He said he was recovering from surgery and a stroke during much of 1995, when many of the incidents allegedly occurred, and blamed a few rogue employees.

``When the cat's away the mice will play,'' he said.

Even Shirley Guckenberger, a former Nissan manager, testified that while she was suspicious that things ``just didn't seem right,'' she hesitated to say warranty fraud.

``That's a very strong word,'' she said.

Guckenberger said two former employees had told her that fraud was occurring at the dealership. But she said she wasn't presented with any proof.

Another witness, Moses Johnson, denied allegations that the dealer authorized free work on his truck in exchange for a favor. A witness for Nissan had claimed that the repairs on the vehicle, which had 90,000 miles on it, were then billed to the manufacturer.

Neither Crumpler's side nor Nissan's attorneys could provide paperwork on the Pathfinder's repairs.

On Friday, Nissan's attorneys listened to Allison's testimony and then provided copies of the former employee's previous comments.

Allison, who worked at the dealership from 1994 to 1996, initially backed up testimony from Jack Peirson, a former parts manager, who claimed Crumpler ordered employees to make repairs to a dealer-owned vehicle that wasn't under warranty - and then bill Nissan.

``He said, `Charge it to warranty; do what you have to do,' '' Allison told the Nissan investigator.

In another incident, Crumpler's wife, Jackie, damaged a van's door after she ran into a lawn mower, Allison said in the statement. Crumpler told a mechanic to replace the damaged door with a door from a manufacturer-owned vehicle, Allison said.

Noting Allison's reluctance to testify, hearing officer Ann Sullivan asked whether he had been contacted by anyone on Crumpler's behalf since March.

Allison said he had not. He also said he had not talked to Crumpler except to say ``Hi'' when he picked up his girlfriend, an employee at the dealership.

As for his March statement, Allison said he lied about Crumpler's involvement because he was upset that he worked long hours and the dealer wouldn't give him pay raises.

``Yeah, I was disgruntled,'' he said.

Nissan has been trying to distance itself from Crumpler since December, when a videotape of the dealer using racial slurs aired nationwide. But it must first prove to DMV officials that it has good reason to yank Crumpler's Nissan franchise.

The hearings ended Friday, and Sullivan is expected to make a recommendation to the DMV commissioner, who will then make his decision.

Crumpler can appeal any decision to the courts. KEYWORDS: HEARING BOB CRUMPLER

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