Day 13: Bob Mayo Blogs The Cyril Wecht Trial In Pittsburgh

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 13 - Feb. 21, 2008 - 8:30 a.m. update

Judge Schwab is reminding the jurors to avoid news coverage of the trial and to keep an open mind. He says they will have March 24th off. He says there's chocolate breakfast cake available for them during the morning break.

(An aside before the testimony resumes. If you're interested in seeing what the attorneys for both sides were writing about this case in the months leading up to the trial, you can check out my personal blog, "The Busman's Holiday." I've put together links to my past blog posts that show some of their legal arguments.)

The testimony of witness Eileen Young now continues.

A September 4, 2002 letter on Wecht law firm letterhead. Young's initials are at the bottom, indicating she typed it for Wecht. (She was a county employee, not a private employee of Wecht.)

It's a letter to the Bank of America. In the letter, Wecht says he is paying half of the bill "under strong protest:. It's over a $69.98 finance charge that he felt was not appropriate. Young says there was apparently a charge for a payment coming in late that "we" felt was unjustified.

Now showing another document. Wecht's handwritten notation on another bill questioning various bank charges, one of them for 62 cents.

Back to the first document. Prosecutor Jim Wilson is asking her to describe the process of reviewing bills that came in. She says she would put them on Wecht's desk. He would identify those to be paid by his private business. The information would also go to his wife Sigrid, who would pay the portions that were not business expenses.

Moves on to display the general ledger of the Wecht business (Cyril H. Wecht & Pathology Associates, Inc.) as of December 31, 2004 from the QuickBooks computer file. Now he's going to show each succeeding page -- for a total of 20 pages.

(The judge has now provided a video monitor in the back of the courtroom, so that reporters can see the same documents that are being displayed on the screens of the jurors.)

Wilson says the checks were used to pay the ordinary expenses of Wecht Pathology. She confirms that he's correct.

Now Wilson says he's going to go to the various income categories in the QuickBooks ledger. Category 600 is Consultations Income. We're in the period of May into July, 2004.

Now we're going to look at Autopsy Income for 2004. He's going through these without comment. He's pointing out another ledger category dealing with Royalties, and still another dealing with sale of slides. There's also a category for Honorarium income.

Next: Government exhibit 365.166. An indication of salary payments and bonuses from Wecht Pathology to Darlene Brewer and Florence Johnson. This is for 12/16/04 to 12/31/04 -- the end of the year. We're looking at her salary of $24,000 and her bonus of $3,000. This is from ADP payroll processing.

A new exhibit -- a letter to her from Bryan Hinds, CPA. Wilson is asked if this letter is unusual. She says this is a cover letter for the annual tax return of Wecht Pathology. She'd dealt with these before.

Moving on to another letter from Wecht typed by Cathy McCabe, who was the "number-two" administrative assistant. The letter indicates Wecht is intending to travel in May of 2004 to attend an event -- the inauguration of Robert Sadoff Library of Forensic Psychiatry and Legal Medicine.

Then he displays and compares a document showing the travel expenses, totaling $787.70. She would write the check, Flo would cash the check and give the cash to Wecht.
Wilson asks... did you actually give him the 70 cents? She says yes. (This question was apparently asked to show that Wecht could pay attention to money details to the penny.)

Shows a fake limousine service receipt for the trip; no limo was used, she confirms.

The credit card records shows the flight actually cost $273.70, but the expense account invoice is $330 higher, and there's the $90 limo fee that was not actually incurred.

Government exhibit 200.400: A letter prepared by McCabe. It's a thank you and congratulations letter from Wecht to Dr. Sadoff.

Government exhibit 1011.18. A check for the amount of the invoice $787.70.

Government exhibit 829.3 : another fax going out from the coroner's office. This one to attorney Sandra Keech. It says "per the request of attorney Mancini".. it provides info on a trip by Wecht.

Next, an item dated Sept 28, 2004 to person at the Southern WV law clinic. It's an invoice for payment.

Next documents to same attorney for the same case, show invoice and payment $13,434.70. The check has a notation "CHW FYI". She says it was to keep Wecht abreast of the check coming in while he was away.

Government exhibit 237.767: this appears to be for a US Air trip Pittsburgh to Charleston for September 24. The charge appears to be five dollars but the invoice says 844.70. There's also the charge a limo trip that wasn't taken. He asks if Wecht told her the trip was actually paid for through the mileage rewards program and cost him only five dollars. She says she doesn't recall that.

Another document indicates the $13,434.70 was paid by a public defenders office in West Virginia.

Next document: a litigation seminar in Las Vegas. US Airways charge for the flight there was actually $806.70 But the expense invoice she sent out for Wecht to the client was for $1,016.70... $200 more than actually paid for the flight.

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January 7, 2005: an invoice to a Robert Killner-- round trip airfare, Pittsburgh to Los Angeles California, on a private case. The credit card records show the US Airways charge was really only five dollars. She says she does not recall Wecht ever saying that was a "rewards" program ticket that cost him $5.

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Next item: air fare, March 18, 2000 $107 air fare Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Invoice shows $598 was charged to client for that $107 flight.

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Next items: Church of Scientology was a client of Wecht in the Lisa McPherson case.

Wilson goes on to show a series of invoices documenting that Wecht charged the Church of Scientology tens of thousands of dollars in each invoice for professional services in the McPherson case. The case invoice documents spanned into 2003.

Next document shows: Purchase from Forbes Travel North, Pittsburgh to Tampa and back $987.80. The invoice charged $1,674, plus $80 for a limo trip that never happened. Overstates airfare by $686. With limo ride, Wilson says there's an overcharge totaling $766.

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Moving on to another example.

$2,139 invoice charging for a March 2002 flight from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. Wilson says that flight may not have happened. She says that's correct.
Walks her through documents showing Wecht got a full refund for the tickets. He then shows that the invoice she sent to Wecht's private client billed the client for an airline cancellation fee. She says she can't explain why. Doesn't recall where she got the information from.

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9:46 AM Young's testimony is continuing.

Wecht Day 13 - Feb. 21, 2008 - 10 a.m. update

Prosecutor Jim Wilson has spent the past hour and a half this morning, walking witness Eileen Young through example after example of discrepancies between Dr. Wecht's actual travel expenses and the amounts on the invoices she billed on his behalf to his private clients.

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10:21 AM: For the past 20 minutes, Wilson has been having her confirm a long series invoices for professional services she sent out to private clients of Wecht using a fax at the coroner's office.

10:25 AM Judge Schwab says they will recess until 10:45.

Wecht Day 13 - Feb. 21, 2008 - 10:43 a.m. update

They're back a few minutes early. As I was entering the room, I heard the jury voicing their approval of something. Apparently the judge had just asked them how they liked the chocolate cake he provided them during the morning break.

The judge says one of the jurors had a relative pass away, and has asked that the trial end by three today, so the juror can travel. (After today, the trial will be in recess until Monday.)

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Wilson walks witness through identifying more documents.

Government exhibit 1039.2 - From May 2004. Letter to a law firm in Los Angeles, concerning the Singapore Airlines case. The decedent is Chi-fua Yeh. Travel time, round trip to Pittsburgh Airport Thursday, May 20, 2004 to attend deposition. Estimated travel time 1.5 hours, billed as one hour: $500. Round-trip Limo fare $100. (Wilson notes again that no one was actually taking the limo.)

Now shows invoice from the airport trip, with her handwritten notation that it was paid. Wilson asks about the fee for the non-existent limo rides going up to $100. She says she doesn't know anything about it. Suggests this one was handled by Kathy McCabe.

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Government exhibit 318.675
Fax from the coroner's office to an attorney in Cincinnati.

Government exhibit 318.714
Fax of letter on Wecht letterhead from the coroner's office to a public defender on a private case in Nashville, Tenn.

Government exhibit 300.152
Fax from the coroner's office to an attorney in Bluefield, W.Va., regarding another private case.

(Once again, we're not hearing about discrepancies in invoices and actual costs right now. It seems as though this line of questioning is intended primarily to show how frequently she was involved in doing Wecht's private work on county time and how often she used the county fax to communicate with his clients.)

Government exhibit 300.182
An invoice for professional services sent ahead of time to a private client.

11:05 AM Now they're going over a series of documents related to histology slides prepared in connection with private black lung cases.

11:15 AM Now we're looking at documents relating to Wecht's doing private work for outlying counties. These documents were mailed to the various district attorneys to which they were addressed -- these would be related to the mail fraud charges.

Oct 31, 2002 letter to Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck concerning a meeting in preparation for a case. Then he shows an invoice for mileage and parking of $37.40.
Next: a check from the treasurer of Westmoreland County. The check combined payment for professional services with payment for the mileage and parking expenses.

Next: documents related to work done for Greene County. Includes meeting with Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox. At the bottom of one document is $38.16 received for travel expenses.

Next: a letter addressed to Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon. Now, an invoice for mileage for going to Fayette County to testify. $35.63 was paid.

Another document: A letter to the DA of Armstrong County, accompanied by an invoice.

Notation on calendar she maintained for Wecht: Marty Coyne to review Peterson photos. What Peterson? Did Dr. Wecht review the Scott Peterson case? She says she really can't remember if this was the Laci Peterson case.
It was a meeting at the coroner's office one hour before the meeting related to the Armstrong County case described above, for which the outlying county was charged for mileage.

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Wilson has her describe incident in which she questioned Wecht about why they were charging private clients for limo rides that did not happen and why they were charging outlying counties for mileage when he was using a county car.

"We were charging mileage on the same services for outlying counties." It bothered her, she talked to him about it. She says "his answer seemed adequate" and made her "feel better about it."
Describe what your concern was about the mileage charge. A: I was concerned that we were not actually using the limo or using his own car or gas. I would make the assumption he was using the county car.
Q: You asked why are we billing for mileage. A: He said to me "Eileen there are a lot of things that are incidentals. When out of town, instead of billing each and every one, I choose to do it this way."

She says it does make sense.

Q: So, Dr. Wecht told you he was charging limo fees to cover incidental expenses, and mileage fees to other counties to cover incidental expenses? That's correct.

Wilson asks her if she knows as an administrative assistant how to spell the word 'incidental'.
"It's not spelled l-i-m-o, is it?"
"Did Dr. Wecht ever tell you why you wouldn't spell i-n-c-i-d-e-n-t-a-l if that's what it was?"
"Was there anything that kept you from typing the word, if that's what it was?"
Objection by defense. Overruled.
Q: You had the ability to type incidental? A: "I didn't do it."

Another incident:
Did you become aware in early 2005 that the defendant was under federal investigation? Says when Katy McCabe came to her crying after Palm Sunday.

Didn't she know before Palm Sunday from newspaper reports that Wecht was under criminal investigation? Starts to answer that she knew Wecht and DA Stephen Zappala were "having problems."

She is asked again if she knew prior to Palm Sunday that Wecht was under possible criminal investigation. She says she did not.

Wilson then showed an invoice from June 2005. In this invoice, Wecht charges an outlying county for "incidental expenses" instead of for "mileage."

11:48 AM Young's testimony is continuing.

Wecht Day 13 - Feb. 21, 2008 - 11:53 a.m. update

They're now going over the personal calendar she prepared for Dr. Wecht.

Wilson says he now wants to talk about Wecht's travel and how it was covered in his calendar.

Looking at 2003. January 1 through 3 is blank. January 4, 2003 he is returning from out of town.

Wilson says he wants to count workdays -- how many days he is out of the office.

Defense attorney Mark Rush objects, saying the number of days that Wecht spent in the office is not part of the indictment. Judge Schwab overrules his objection and allows Wilson to continue.

Wilson notes the next travel is January 22. According to the schedule, he's flying Pittsburgh to Rochester, bank to Pittsburgh, then Seattle, and on to Portland, all on the same day. That trip appears to continue onto January 23rd. It says he arrived back in Pittsburgh on Friday, the 24th.

Wilson says that would be Wednesday and Thursday that the defendant was out of town? A: It would appear that way by the schedule.
That's the second trip of 2003.

Wilson goes to February 19th. It says CHW returning from an out of town meeting on Monday and Tuesday. He says he won't count those, because we don't have information about whether he was out of town.

Next: February 27. Indicates he'll be leaving for a meeting in Phoenix. Young protests that the trip was county-related. He says he's counting days that Wecht was out of town, not whether it was county related.

Defense Attorney Rush asks the judge to note that he has a standing objection to this entire line of material.

Wilson says the next trip, according to the calendar, is March 13th. Trip to Harrisburg for the American Society of Trauma. Arrives in Pittsburgh Friday morning, March 14. There's a notation CHW going to Florida at 8:15 PM.

Wilson says that's a total of eight days, so far, and the fourth trip.

Next: Monday, March 17th, arrives back in Pittsburgh at 9:30 that evening. Wilson says he'll only count Monday as a workday missed, because of the weekend.

Rush tries objecting again. Judge overrules him.

Tuesday, March 18. Wilson says this would be the sixth trip.

Wednesday, March 19. A state supreme court event at Penn State, and a flight arriving back in Pittsburgh in the afternoon. Wilson says that's ten days total.

Tuesday March 25. An evening flight leaving for Philadelphia. A state supreme court program meeting for trial judges on DNA.

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Thursday, March 27. Flight leaves Pittsburgh late in morning for West Palm Beach, Fla. Friday the 28th, the defendant is also in Florida. Still in Florida on the 29th.

Entry for Monday, March 31. Wecht leaves Florida. Wilson says Eighth trip. Not counting weekend days, we're up to 13 total days.

(It appears we are going to go day by day through the entire year. I'm not going to blog here the day-by-day, hour-by-hour minutia. I will note Wilson's running tally periodically.)

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Trip to Cincinnati is the ninth trip out of town, and we're up to a total of 14 days out of town.

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Young periodically says that she's trusting Wilson's count of the days as we go. She says "I'm not even sure why we're doing this." Her comment brings laughter from the jury.
(She's the one who kept the calendar, so the prosecution is able to use her to go through it, item by item, to document its analysis of how often Wecht was out of town on workdays.)

We've gotten to June 20, 2003.

The judge suggests the lawyers might meet over lunch and see if they can stipulate to the rest.

12:30 PM Judge says they're now breaking for lunch until 1:30 PM.

Wecht Day 13 - Feb. 21, 2008 - 1:25 p.m. update

They've started early, with the jury not in the room. There's a dispute over whether or not the jury should be hearing Wilson's running count of how many days Wecht was out of town.

Defense attorney Jerry McDevitt is arguing before the judge that the material being covered now from Wecht's calendar and time out of town is very prejudicial, not relevant not appropriate. McDevitt says it is unrelated to the criminal charges against Wecht.

Prosecutor Jim Wilson says the material is related to the theft of honest services fraud charge.

McDevitt argues that this is irrelevant, prejudicial, and has nothing to do with the indictment.

Judge Schwab overrules the defense objection.

1:33 PM. The jury is back in the room, and Eileen Young's testimony resumes.

Wilson says he wants to talk about some meetings and conferences that took place at the coroner's office. They're back at January, 2003. Establishes that there are instances of Wecht having meetings at the coroner's office about private for-profit cases.

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The prosecution is now moving forward again through Wecht's calendar from the start of the year. The earlier review was to show how much time Wecht spent *out* of town. Wilson is now using the calendar kept by this witness to show how much time Wecht spent on his private business while he was *in* town and at the coroner's office.

(It appears as though Wilson has abandoned -- at least for the moment -- the line of questioning to which McDevitt had objected. He's no longer using the witness to count off days that Wecht was out of town on work days.)

The prosecution points out periodically as it tracks payments and communications with Wecht's private clients: these are instances of Wecht's private work being done at or through the coroner's office on county time.

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(Once again, it appears we are going to go day by day through the entire year. As above, I'm not going to blog here the day-by-day, minutia. I will note any instance that appears to stand out or advance a larger point.)

Wilson: The defendant is clearly charging clients to meet with him on private matters at the coroner's office, is that correct? Young: Yes.

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Wednesday August 13, 2003 at 10 AM, a meeting at the coroner's office on private business. Then shows an invoice and check payment from an attorney for $1,000.
"What began with a meeting with a defendant at the coroner's office resulted in a deposit of $1,000 in the Wecht Pathology bank account?
Yes.

2:56 PM Trial adjourns for the day. Back on Monday.