Courthouse Blog: The Cyril Wecht Trial, Day 12

Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo is covering the trial of Dr. Cyril Wecht at the federal courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh. He will be posting blogs as often as possible from court. These are the raw notes that were sent on his mobile device.

Wecht Day 12 - Feb. 20, 2008 - 8:32 a.m. update

Judge Schwab tells the trial will be in session on Thursday. Judge to the media: counsel will have to work out reasonable requests of the media (for access to documents) without involvement of the court. If not, he'll implement an order of the court in writing. Will not put online any document online that has personal information. Will not require redaction, that will take too much time.

8:35 AM Prosecutor Jim Wilson is continuing to question witness Eileen Young. She had a role in paying bills of Wecht Pathology. Flo would bring them up from Wecht's private office on Wood Street. She'd provide them to Wecht by putting it on his desk. He'd review. She'd write checks for payment for Wecht Pathology.

Q: In regard to credit card: Bank of America dividend miles card, and the American Express card-- you would wind up paying them both? A: Correct.

Shows document to her. This is from one of the accounts she was responsible to pay when she was principal administrative assistant to Dr. Wecht.

Asks about notation in upper corner: "BH". She does not know what that is. The account holders are Cyril and Sigrid Wecht.
See the handwritten notations? Yes.
Her handwriting on the right hand side: Check number she used, and the amount. Also a notation by Wecht.
Wecht would go over the bill to see what items were Wecht Pathology-related, Wecht's wife would do the same. Witness would pay the portion that was Wecht Pathology. Sigrid Wecht would write a check to pay the rest.

Wilson is walking the witness through items on this credit card bill, from bagels to business items.

Goes on to other documents.
This is from the same Bank of America account. There's a handwritten notation she says could be hers. There's a column of handwritten figures on the right hand side. The correspond to check marks Wecht made next to items on the credit card bill. Lab supplies from CVS on two occasions, some reference to "office."

Goes on to next page of bill, handwritten figures are carried over, and there are additional notations.

Next item: a check signed by Wecht to Bank of America. In answer to question, she says this was a rare instance in which Wecht wrote the check on behalf of Wecht Pathology instead of her writing it.

Next document. Does this appear to be the same dividend miles account with Bank of America? Yes.
Her handwritten notation: "send to BH." She says that would be Brian Heinz, Wecht's accountant.
She acknowledges that was her practice, but she's not sure how frequently.
He shifts attention to the bottom have the document.

Notation on what may be a charge, asking what it was for. She says that there would likely have been communication between her and Sigrid Wecht to identify it. Shows check from Sigrid Wecht -- payment for the non-Wecht Pathology portion of the bill. This illustrates their practice. The witness, Eileen Young, would write checks to cover Wecht Pathology's portion of the bill. Mrs. Wecht would write a check covering the non-business portion.

Wilson points out on the screen what appears to be a printout from an adding machine. These are her calculations of what Wecht Pathology owes on the monthly bill.

(My aside: I should explain that the witness and the jury see all copies of all documents on an LCD computer screen. It's rare for the originals to be used here in court in this trial.)

Testimony is continuing, with Wilson showing Young copies of credit card statements, notations, and payments.
She acknowledges that this was a normal part of her routine for both this Bank of America account and American Express account.

9:05 Wilson says they are now doing to switch to examining items from Young's computer.

Wecht Day 12 - Feb. 20, 2008 - 9:05 a.m. update

Wilson: this is an FBI image of her computer's hard drive, not her computer itself.
They open the program "QuickBooks" and enter her password which she previously provided to the government.
He opens the general ledger. At the end of the year, she would send a copy to the accountants.
It goes back as far as January 1997. That's before she had this responsibility.
This file shows money coming into and going out of the account for Wecht Pathology.

Judge questions prosecutor Wilson about how the material being viewed from the computer will be identified in the official record. They settle on "government exhibit 200," which is the computer.

Wilson focuses on January 4, 2002. A series of checks-- he ticks off the payments.
Are these checks you would have begun to produce as principal administrative assistant for Wecht Pathology? Yes.
Check 3273 for $1,000 is to Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. He asks, she doesn't recall its details.
He moves ahead to February 2002. He notes various salary checks to her and other individuals.
Do you see a check for $2,000 in March of 2002 to Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science? She doesn't remember it, but acknowledges it could have been a routine payment.
Wilson scrolls ahead through what he describes as ordinary bills she paid. He heads to November, 2002. There's a deposit on Nov 26, 2002 he wants to look at. It identifies a series of deposits. She says these are checks that are to be divided between consultations and autopsy incomes. There were regular incomes from both sides.
Asks her how she would handle a consultation check and how she would hand an autopsy check. She would show them to Dr. Wecht, then take them back and fill out deposit slip. The separation only came in the QuickBooks computer notation when she entered it into the books. She says Darlene Brewer did the billing for the autopsies.
Q: All of these checks, these deposits were your responsibility, part of your job? Yes.
Q: We see a number of checks in 2003 to Dr. Omalu, others. These are all people with whom Wecht would consult? Yes.
Notation for payment of tickets
Feb 2003: $1,000 payment to Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. You see the check here to Marty Coyne? He was the photographer for autopsies.
Why $100 check? Could be for photography, or he would sometimes write chapters for books.
Were you familiar with the fact the defendant was putting together different books? Yes, of course.
Would you sometimes write letters to authors of chapters of different books? Yes.
Dr. Wecht told her who to write to, experts in different fields. She would communicate with authors on what the honorarium would be. She would write the checks.

He says he's now moving to 2005 records. He says the last entry in the run of the general ledger is in April of 2005. Yes. Her computer was taken by the FBI pursuant to a search warrant. It could have been around that month. It was at her office at the coroner's office when it was taken by the FBI.

Now looking at sections on consultations. He's scrolling to the portion when she became an administrative assistant.
January 2002. The consultations section. Section 600: checks written and checks deposited from the consultation side of the business-- as opposed to the autopsy side of the business.

She says Flo was the one who went to the back most of the time. She would go if Flo wasn't there. She would go to the bank in the Grant Building or the Frick Building.

Miss Young, do these represent deposits that you processed on behalf of Wecht Pathology? Yes, they do.

Wilson says he's going to look at account 610 in QuickBooks -- designated as autopsy income. Goes to January 2002. Can you tell us what we're looking at here? Deposit in the first row, the date of the deposit, an item number, a name. She would distinguish by county if it was work for an outside county, or put the name of the private person if it was a private autopsy.

Can we go to the account "Autopsy Assistance Fees"? She identifies the different fields of data in this account in the QuickBooks computer records.
Most of these are to Mr. Mancuso, he was Dr. Wecht's principle autopsy tech? Yes.

She says she realized later she had made an error in entering the data by category--- that this was listed as income, when it was actually money going out. So she changed to "Autopsy Assistance Expense."

He is now questioning her about occasions when she would contact Dr. Omalu to do an autopsy as private work from an outlying county when Dr. Wecht was out of town.

Wilson now looking at other QuickBooks income categories: "Income Royalties" from Wecht's published books and articles.

Asks about the category "Slide Rental Fees". She says that when someone would purchased slides, this is where she would enter the data.

She says she was initially struggling with the QuickBooks program, and was entering data in the wrong categories.

Now looking at the section showing that showed payments to doctors for doing private autopsies. Assistance by these physicians to Dr. Wecht in his private business? Yes.

Next: looking at twice a month payment of Wecht Pathology salaries to her and other employees.

If we could look at a moment at "Reimbursed Expenses"; what would we find there? If they went to buy cookies and pop. She says Wecht was big on entertaining people when they came to visit. She or others would go pick these things up.
Can you tell us, in August 2002 what the defendant would be reimbursed $2,335.20 for? She says on occasion clients would send one check instead of following her instructions to send two checks-- one for fee the other for expenses. In a case like that, she would deposit the incoming check and make a check out to Wecht for the reimbursement of expenses.

Category 60, "Rent Expense", what sort of things would be in that category? Dr. Wecht would occasionally use the Wecht law firm office for Wecht Pathology business. She'd write check to law firm for pathology business' portion of rent expense.
He notes check to PIMS. Do you know if there was a rental agreement between Wecht Pathology and the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science? No, I do not.

He's now closing out her QuickBook file. And he's moving on to other computer files.
One folder is CHW (Wecht's initials). The other is "My Documents".
Also on the computer "Maribeth's Documents"--the name her predecessor. She had that so she could see how Maribeth Blettner did things.

10:00 AM testimony is continuing.

Wecht Day 12 - Feb. 20, 2008 - 10:05 a.m. update

Defense attorney Mark Rush asks for a sidebar discussion with the judge and the prosecutors about an issue they have with some of the materials now on display.

10:08 AM Sidebar discussion ends. Wilson continues questioning Young.
Can you tell the jury what you kept in the "My Documents Folder"? She says she was trying to come up with a good file system when she started the job.
Dylan? My son would send me everyday pictures of my beautiful grandchild.
I'm going to open the file folder labeled "consultations". Asks her about the files inside that folder. She was trying to build databases on attorneys, autopsies, bills, so she could more quickly find information.
A lot of people who were in prison would write to Dr. Wecht. They were asking for his help or sympathy.

10:13 AM Judge says morning break until 10:35.

10:36 AM Testimony resumes.

Prosecutor Jim Wilson is walking witness Eileen Young through various files copied by the FBI from the computer on which she did private work for Wecht. Wilson notes there are 1,500 computer files in the "Current Cases" folder.

Now moving on to the "Proposed Consultations" file, then a folder labeled "Third Card", then "Autopsy", and "Black Lung".

---
Opens a folder called "Bills". Not the same as the "Invoice" folder.
Miss Young, if we could back up a moment to the CHW Folder. I'd like to look in the "Forms" folder. Can you tell us what would be in the forms folder? This includes a list of cases in which he's provided expert testimony, a copy of Wecht's resume.

Goes to a folder labeled "Consults". Most of the contents are dated 2002, some 2003. An occasional 2001.
Can you tell the members of the jury what these documents principally from 2002 are? Again, she talks about her initial difficulty in organizing her work and developing her filing system.

Now looking at folder labeled "Consult 2003". Wilson indicates there are 780 files in the "Consult 2003" Folder. Young answers "You certainly spent a lot of time counting documents".

---
Asks her about private consultation cases -- those in which Wecht contracted with another doctor to do an autopsy.
Were there ever occasions where the defendant took no part in preparing the final report? No. He would always review. Does not recall ever getting a private case where Wecht did not review it himself.

Wilson now wants to look at the folder labeled "Schedule". There's a designation "Calendar 2003". Wilson calls it a "whopping big" computer file.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Wilson says he wants to look at items from the folder dealing with letters from prison.
Do you see the handwriting on this document and the date on the upper corner? Yes. Dr. Wecht's handwriting.
Can you read the document on the screen? It's from an attorney about a fight at lockup in Clearfield County, in which the decedent died from a "closed head injury". The prisoner had also been prescribed various medications by the prison doctor. The notation says "possible new case".

---
On to another exhibit: Government 2000.512. It's a letter she drafted. Based on a form letter.
Circumstances? If he would get a letter from prisoner asking help, he would deal with their attorney, not the inmate. The form letter would indicate that. When the attorney called, she'd go through the normal procedure of informing of fees, etc.

Are these cases (dealing with prisoners) dealt with any differently than any other cases that come through the door? No.

Wilson says he wants to deal with the area of travel; how she would deal with expenses when the defendant had to travel our of town.

(Aside: It appears we are now getting into an area which may tie in with the testimony of the US Airways expert yesterday.)

How would create an invoice to send to client if Wecht was to travel out of town? She says she created form letters. She would create two invoices, one for professional services. He charged a flat rate of $5,000. There were various line items that would change and she would adjust on the form. She did not put hours, she would put tasks and flat rate.
Second form was an invoice for travel expenses out of town. She had a template with the standard information that was going to be filled in, and would adjust it per invoice.
If he was going out of town, she had a spot on the template that said air fare. She'd then plug in cities and the fare.
Next item would be food he would be eating. There was a line item on template for meals.
Another line was limousine services, $90. That was written out.
Those were the common items.
After the trip she would put in the actual amounts.

She would then create a cover letter explaining, and instructing to pay in separate checks for fee for professional services and expenses.
She'd sent out three pages: a cover letter that Wecht would sign, the invoice for the fee, and the invoice for the expenses.
She would bring in a stack of material to his desk. She would come back later and they would be in a separate pile.
There was a "pullout" to his desk on the left. She'd stack the mail and the documents she had typed in order of importance.
You put those to his left, where he would be seated? That's correct.
Where would they be when she came back? To the far end at the top of the desk to the right of where he sat.

Where there occasions when you'd leave airline receipts and travel agency receipts with the invoice? Yes.
Asks her to focus on an example document, then walks her through those elements in this example.

When you were filling out an expense account for any given trip, was it your practice to prepare the invoice before or after he traveled? She'd try to prepare it beforehand, if possible.

The air fare would come from a piece of handwritten paper where either Flo or Dr. Wecht had called the airline (not booking the flight) and gotten a price.
Did Dr. Wecht ever come back and say "I charged too much" or "I charged too little for the flight"? A: No.

Wilson shows another document. Did you become familiar with the way the defendant's American Express card bill looked? Yes.
Do you know which account was principally used for business travel? She could not say for sure. ---

Dr. Wecht never said we overcharged or undercharged.

Looking at sample invoice. Wilson notes a charge.

When you billed for travel, is this the type of expense you would include? Were these invoices the kind of thing that were prepared, produced and kept as a standard course of business in your role as chief administrative assistant to Dr. Wecht? Indicates it is.

(Again, we are looking at work done for Wecht's private business by Wilson while she was at the coroner's office working at her county job as Wecht's coroner administrative assistant.)

Wilson is comparing an invoice with actual receipts for a Pittsburgh to Philadelphia trip. 9-20-01. Two documents on split screen. Expense account on the left appears to list expenses Pittsburgh to New York. The one on the right appears to list similar expenses for a Philadelphia trip.

$246.50 invoice for Pittsburgh New York round trip, $98 Pittsburgh to Philadelphia round trip.

They both list a limo charge in Pittsburgh, not in Philadelphia or New York.

Can you indicate how it is two expense invoices were prepared for the same date indicating two round trip airfares, when it indicates what was purchased was one trip $110, Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia? She says she doesn't know if she assisted in preparing that, so I can't answer that.

Wilson: it appears that both of these are Wecht Pathology invoices, but both appear to be referring to same trip, which was (actually) Pittsburgh to New York to Philadelphia back to Pittsburgh? She indicates that she can't account for it.

---
Moves on to compare another invoice. Millennium Hotel bill. The invoice. Shows her record of a train ticket from New York to Philadelphia for that date, Sept. 20, 2001.

Can you explain how the defendant is buying a train ticket in Philadelphia while billing clients for round trips on same date to New York and Philadelphia? She can't.

Asks how Wecht can detail his hotel bill to the penny, but provide these invoices? Objection. Sustained. Argumentative.

You never paid anyone $80 or $90 for a limo trip to the airport? No.
Can you explain how you came to raise the bill for a non-existent limo trip? She tells story of how she once pointed out to Wecht that his expert fee and his limo rate had been the same for a long time, and that maybe he should look at raising it because other experts are charging more. He said, what do you think we should be charging, Eileen? She said a few thousand for his professional services. He said no, no, no, that's too much. He went for $1,500. She also suggested the limo fee should be raised slightly too. They decided to raise that too... she can't say if he or she decided, but that was when.

October 16, 2001 purchase for later date. Pittsburgh to Tampa, Fla.: $153.70. Can she explain how it was billed to client for $1,335.50? No.

Fax on another date for speaking appearance before Exxon Mobil group in New Jersey. Fee invoice for speaking honorarium.

There's a letter from Wecht thanking Ms. Kregan (Sp?) for chocolate chip cookies. She indicates Wecht would have written that.

Exhibit: appears to be an invoice for hotel: total $211.76. Compares to another government exhibit. That appears to the penny on her invoice. He provided it? She assumes so. He says that's how that she was able to provide the exact figure.

Another item on invoice from Mercur-Lombardo Travel Agency... which no longer existed. She filled in the information. The figure on the invoice was $695.

Next item: first class limo trip receipt. $45 out, $45 back. But she acknowledges there was actually no limo trip. Airfare listed $694.58.

42 cents probably means nothing to anyone in this room. But can you tell us how it was rounded up on the invoice to $695? She says she did not round up, that the information probably came from Flo or from Dr. Wecht.

Next item, refund from US Air to American Express $347.30. Did Dr. Wecht tell you, by the way, I cashed in the second half of the trip for $347? No.

Did Dr. Wecht ever come back and say I rode in limo to Philadelphia and took the flight back from there? No.

12:20 PM Trial breaks for lunch.

Wecht Day 12 - Feb. 20, 2008 - 1:20 p.m. update

Testimony of Elaine Young continues. Wilson asking about a Pittsburgh to Tampa flight. Feb 20 through 22, 2002. $942.79 on credit card bill.

Asks if she knows how it turned into $1,341 on the expense invoice turned into the client? Any idea how that got converted from the actual amount to the amount that appeared on the invoice? She says that would have come from Flo or Dr. Wecht calling the airline.

Another exhibit: Professional fee invoice of $5,000.

Another exhibit: Do you see the (expenses) invoice on Feb 20, 2002 Round Trip, Pittsburgh to LaGuardia, limo and taxi. Total $1,059.

Another exhibit: Credit card bill: $541.19 for a flight.
Can you indicate how that becomes $839 on the expense invoice to the client? I wouldn't have paid attention to the USAir bill. The figure would have come from Dr. Wecht or Flo calling the airline before the flight.
Did Dr. Wecht ever come back and say "whoops, Eileen, we overcharged the client by $300"? No.

Next exhibit: Marked corrected invoice. Asterisk indicating change because it did not list hotel charges for Wednesday and Thursday night.
Begins with round trip airfare, Pittsburgh to El Paso. April 11, 2002.
Travel April 3 through 5, 2002, prepared after. $2,063 charged to client on invoice.
Limo fee for $90; limo was not taken? No.
Hotel bill details provided and meal expenses for the three days. She indicates Wecht would provide meal details.
Hertz rental charge and refueling expense? Would have come from Dr. Wecht. Compare with another government exhibit.
Actual credit card charge, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, El Paso, back to Pittsburgh: $1,906.39... about $156 less than the figure listed on the invoice.
Hertz rental charge of $201 listed on invoice is off by 38 cents. Would she have rounded it off? No.
Refueling cost was about $3. The invoice submitted was $10.

Can you tell us why there is a charge on the invoice to the client for $110 for the night of the 4th, when no such charge appears on the American Express bill? No.
Can you tell us why the invoice charges for meals in El Paso, when records show the defendant was already back in Pittsburgh? No.

---
Wilson continues to rapidly tick off figures in other examples in which the amount charged to clients on the invoices was higher than the actual air fare that appeared on Wecht's credit card.

---
Another example: Airfare Pittsburgh to Detroit and back $657.89 on credit card is $216 less that the amount that appears on the expense account invoice-- $874.50.

------
Another example. This invoice says there was an airline ticket change fee says $75 times two. Do you recall getting any information to show there was a fee of $75 times two? No.
Actual charge of $22.50 cents on the US Air records (Note: that was tax on redeeming credit or coupon.) Previous witness testified the US Airways records show no ticket change fees. Can you explain why? No.

-----
Another example where the invoice was sent out a few weeks after the travel, yet records show the client was over-billed by a couple of hundred dollars.

-----
Another example. Round trip air fare for $1,041.50 listed on a Mercur-Lombardo Travel Agency invoice. (Note: prosecution has shown that Wecht did not do business with Mercur Lombardo. Has described the invoices as fake. )
Wilson notes in his question that the previous witness testified that the defendant used a "Golden Opportunities" coupon and the actual cost was a total $361.50.

-----
Wilson asks why the handwriting looked different on two different portions of the invoice receipts sent to the client. She says when she took over from Maribeth Blettner, Blettner said "I always make them look different". Young says she followed suit. She says Wecht had no idea. Wilson notes she submitted the invoices to Wecht to review.
Q; Did it ever occur to you that was a practical way of deceiving your client? A: Yes.
Was that a way to make the clients believe different people were involved in filling out the invoices? "I'm ashamed to admit. I realized what I was doing. Nobody made me do it. I felt Dr. Wecht was worth it. Nobody's perfect. I'm sorry."

2:14 PM Testimony is continuing.

Wecht Day 12 - Feb. 20, 2008 - 2:14 p.m. update

The prosecution continues to walk the witnesses through numerous additional examples. What follows below are examples.

Wilson asks whether the overcharges for airline fees and charging limo fees for limo rides that didn't take place don't start to add up when you travel more than 30 times a year? Young answers yes.

Another example: $4,200 vs. $10,000 documented expenses vs. what was submitted in an expense invoice submitted to a client.

Additional examples in which clients were charged hundreds or thousands of dollars more than the actual expenses incurred.

When Dr. Wecht would come back from a trip, would he give you the receipts, or would he write down the figures on a piece of paper? A: He did it both ways.

Another example: $801.20 round trip Pittsburgh-Newark. Then same type of trip purchased at same $801.20 price, for a second trip, Pittsburgh-Newark, two days later.

Invoice charge was $100 greater than what Wecht was actually charged. Do you see that both tickets were purchased on March 19, 2002?

Directs her attention to another government exhibit:

Round trip Pittsburgh, Los Angeles: $203.70, as per Wecht's American Express card statement.

$1646.70 is what he charged his client via the expenses invoice. With limo charge, the invoice overstates actual expenses by a total of more than $1,500, correct? Yes.

3:00 PM Trial concludes for the day.