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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2008
BARROW JOURNAL
PAGE 3A
READY TO SERVE
All recently elected Barrow County officials took their oaths of office before a
packed audience in the Barrow County Courthouse. The event took on historical
significance, as after all future elections, county officials will be sworn into office in
the new Barrow County Criminal Justice Center that opens in 2009.
‘Lawyer’s dream’
Barrow man, smoking gun memo turn whistleblower
BYALYSONM. PALMER
Airport continued from 1A
Fulton County Daily Report
When a Barrow County man
was referred to her Atlanta law
office three years ago. Lee
Tarte Wallace had no idea she
was about to see a few legal
dreams become reality.
Henry W. "‘Buster” Roderigas
Jr. was at a loss, Wallace said.
He had recently returned from
Iraq, having resigned his
post working for L-3 Vertex
Aerospace, a Mississippi-
based government contrac
tor that's a subsidiary of L-3
Communications Corp.
As alleged in a whistleblower
suit filed in 2005 but unsealed
only this month, Roderigas
thought L-3 was, in essence,
stealing from the government.
All he wanted was for the
company to pay the govern
ment back, Wallace explained,
but his efforts to work with
the company and its lawyers
weren’t working.
“When you’re daydreaming
in law school,” Wallace said,
“he’s the kind of guy you hope
you're representing.”
When Roderigas told her
about a particular L-3 memo he
possessed, another legal dream
came true. “Your whole career
you keep hearing about the
smoking gun document,” said
Wallace, “but after a while you
start to think it’s a myth.”
Wallace calls it the “Bill Your
Lunch Memo.” The complaint
she filed on Roderigas' behalf
characterizes it as instructing
employees to fill out their time
sheets to show they took a
30-minute lunch even though
they take 90 minutes. This prac
tice was especially expensive
for the government, accord
ing to the complaint, because
L-3 employees worked long
hours on site and billed a lot of
overtime.
Many law school dreams—
such as representing a death
row inmate—are less than
lucrative. This one had a nice
payoff.
As trumpeted in a U.S.
Department of Justice press
release last week, Roderigas
will receive $720,000, or 18
percent, of a $4 million settle
ment between the government
and L-3. According to Wallace,
a whistleblower can receive 15
to 25 percent of the govern
ment’s recovery, but 15 percent
is the most common number.
Wallace said L-3 also will
pay her $318,425 in fees, on
top of the $4 million.
Best known for her personal
injury work and an unsuccess
ful run for the state Court of
Appeals in 2004, Wallace said
she hadn’t handled a whistle
blower suit before taking on
Roderigas’ case.
L-3 will not lose its many
government contracts as part
of the settlement, according to
Wallace,
Wallace filed the suit in the
federal district court in Atlanta
in November 2005. The federal
False Claims Act allows whis
tleblowers to sue on behalf
of the United States, and the
complaint asked for money
for both the government and
Roderigas.
The government didn't offi
cially intervene in the case until
this month, but, according to
the DOJ release, the case was
investigated by multiple fed
eral agencies and litigated and
settled by the U.S. attorney's
office in Atlanta and the Justice
Department’s Civil Division.
U.S. Attorney David E.
Nahmias said in the DOJ news
release that the settlement
demonstrates the government's
commitment to protecting pub
lic funds that support military
operations. “We will continue
to vigorously pursue defense
contractors that disregard bill
ing requirements.”
Wallace praised the govern
ment lawyers who worked on
the case, Daniel A. Caldwell III
of the Atlanta office and Art J.
Coulter in Washington. “They
blew away every stereotype
I ever had about government
workers,” she said. “They were
so committed to this case.”
L-3 was represented by W.
Jay DeVecchio of Jenner &
Block’s Washington office.
DeVecchio did not return
calls seeking comment, and
a spokeswoman at L-3, Dani
Edmonson, said corporate pol
icy prevented her from com
menting on legal matters.
The complaint filed by
Wallace alleged more than just
overbilling for lunch hours.
It contends that L-3 fre
quently hired people it knew
were unqualified to the do the
highly technical jobs the gov
ernment contract demanded. It
says the company didn’t check
Roderigas’ references, and
one employee who had been
discharged from the Army on
grounds of cocaine use was
hired after he delivered pizza to
a senior L-3 employee's home
in Germany. That put American
soldiers at risk, alleged the
complaint, giving as an exam
ple a March 2005 incident
where guns on a helicopter
serviced by L-3 jammed, the
helicopter was shot down by
a grenade, and the servicemen
aboard were killed.
The complaint also alleges
that, because L-3 gave addi
tional compensation to super
visors based on the number of
employees at their sites, L-3
was overstaffed.
Roderigas alleged he com
plained to L-3 higher-ups about
unqualified employees, idle
workers and false billing. After
he complained, said Wallace,
he was told his site no longer
had a bed for him, and he had
24 hours to report for a new job
in Balad, Iraq. She said he was
then put on a helicopter that
flew past Balad into an airport
with no flights to Balad for
several days.
Trying to meet L-3’s dead
line, she said, Roderigas got a
ride with a Blackwater secu
rity patrol. She said the convoy
was ambushed and the vehicle
behind Roderigas was blown
off the road. When he finally
reached Balad, according to
Wallace, he was told there was
no job or bed for him, so he
returned home to Georgia.
According to Wallace,
Roderigas was shot down in a
helicopter in the Vietnam War,
but he called the ambush in
Iraq the worst experience of
his life.
In correspondence attached
to the complaint, Roderigas
said that he took the job in Iraq
to be close to his son, who was
serving in the U.S. military
there. Roderigas recounted that
his son was wounded when
his Bradley Fighting Vehicle
was blown apart by an impro
vised explosive device and that
Roderigas was able to be by his
side when he was treated for
wounds at a Balad hospital.
Wallace said Roderigas’ son
remains in the military but is
too injured to return to a com
bat zone, “He is still pushing
hard to go back,” she said.
As for her client, Wallace
said he is back in a war zone—
this time in Afghanistan. She
said he heads another com
pany’s operations there, main
taining vans that sit at check
points and scan vehicles for
plastic explosives.
“He's a hero,” said Wallace,
“It was an honor to represent
him. It really was.”
The case is United States ex
rel. Roderigas v. L-3 Vertex
Aerospace, No. L05-CV-2893.
“We have spent money at
the airport, very specifically
for Runway 31-13, which
we funded out of roads
SPLOST with the reim
bursement expected to come
from airport SPLOST fund
ing when it is collected - if
it is collected at this point,”
Lee said. “So that leaves a
remainder of about $300,000
(from airport funds) that has
not been spent.”
In Barrow County,
SPLOST funds are collected
and spent by project prior
ity and the airport improve
ments are 12 th out of 13
projects on the list. If the
money is not fully collected
during this SPLOST cycle,
which ends in June 2012, it
will have to be put on the
next SPLOST vote.
“I had a conversation with
our attorney,” he said. “It
was nothing formal. I know
if we reprioritize projects or
say we make a decision not
to do a project and not spend
that SPLOST money and
spend it on a separate proj
ect in the SPLOST program,
then in the next vote for the
SPLOST, that money has to
be in there. You, ultimately,
once voters have said you
are doing this, you at some
point in time have to do
that.”
That means that while it’s
likely the county will even
tually collect that $500,000
and pay back the $200,000
already spent, that won’t
happen anytime soon and
certainly not by the FAA’s
June deadline.
“We spoke with Tommy
and he adamantly denied this
claim,” Robinson said.
A letter from the firm’s attor
ney in January 2008 said Parten
had authorized substituting one
set of parts for the other.
Robinson said some items
for two of the vehicles were
purchased with strictly-regu
lated grant money from the
Governor’s Office of Highway
Safety.
“We had to specifically iden
tify the parts that we were
ordering for the ... vehicles
in the grant package and the
money allocated by G.O.H.S.
was to be used to purchase
those identified parts,” the let
ter states. “In this case, that
did not happen and we have
been unable to get the Barrow
County government to get this
The Winder hospital claims
in court documents that open
ing a new hospital in Braselton
— 11 miles from Barrow
Regional — would have a
major economic impact on
the 56-bed facility.
Barrow Regional is also
AIRPORT
BUDGET
The airport authority’s
budget normally is approved
by the end of September,
because its fiscal year begins
Oct. 1 along with the county
government’s budget. The
nearly three-month delay
was due to recent controver
sies about planned capital
improvements.
For the fiscal year ending
Sept. 30, 2009, the author
ity budget projects revenues
of $320,892 and operational
expenses of $260,754, for a
net income of $60,139. Those
net proceeds will be used
to pay for capital expenses
during the year, according
to the three-page document.
The airport’s $697,593 capi
tal budget calls for expendi
tures of $457,776 for new or
recently completed projects
and a repayment of $239,817
on the authority’s line of
credit. After all operational
and capital expenditures, the
FY2009 budget projects a
net income of $17,362.
Barnett said the budget
could be amended after the
first of the year if the county
commissioners decide to pro
vide funding for the lighting
system at the county-owned
airport.
SHELTER
ACCELERATED
While the airport SPLOST
spending appears to be
dead for now, the county
has accelerated its spend
ing for the 13th item on the
SPLOST list of 13 projects
— an animal shelter, which
issue resolved.”
The sheriff, who retires Dec.
31, said he did not want to let
the issue slide.
“This memo is to request
your office’s assistance in
investigating this matter. I am
concerned that their (sic) may
be issues of a criminal nature,
as well as civil, and I do not
want this matter to simply go
away without resolution,” he
wrote.
GBI special agent Jim
Fullington confirmed receipt
of the letter.
“We've been requested and
are looking into some of the
allegations to determine if
there is a potential criminal
act,” he said.
Matt Reeves, attorney for
Parts Enterprises, said Tuesday
that the dispute is a civil mat-
objecting to the state depart
ment’s approval of the
Braselton facility without an
adequate review. The Winder
hospital filed an objection to
the Braselton facility during
the CON process in 2007,
but a hearing officer and the
is currently under construc
tion.
Lee said that since the actu
al SPLOST dollars for the
project hasn’t been collected
yet, funding for the shelter
is coming from interest on
more than $25 million the
county either has borrowed,
or already has banked from
SPLOST collections dating
back to 2001.
“We just could not handle
the amount of animals we’re
dealing with today,” Lee
said. “We had 26 kennels
for the dogs we were trying
not to put down every day.
Anytime there was a parvo
(virus) outbreak, we had to
put down everything in the
building; so we needed an
environment that is more
sterile.”
The shelter will open in
May or June at a cost of $1.5
million, Lee said. Lee said
as of Nov. 25, the county had
the following SPLOST rev
enues in the bank: $2.5 mil
lion from the 2001 SPLOST;
$16.3 million from the
2005 SPLOST Bond; and
$6.5 million from the 2005
SPLOST.
All of that money is ear
marked, he said, for projects
ranging from a West Winder
Bypass and other road proj
ects to the new criminal jus
tice center that opens in the
spring, the new Fire Station
6 and future Fire Training
Center, renovations to the
old courthouse, jail and
county annex, the cultural
arts center, and water and
sewer improvements.
ter.
“Parts Enterprises stands
behind its work, and has a posi
tive track record,” Reeves said.
“Parts Enterprises is appalled
that the outgoing Sheriff would
try to divert the attention of the
GBI in this way from keep
ing criminals off the street,
to spending time on a civil
matter.”
Barrow County Chiel
Administrator Keith Lee said
Monday that the county stafi
has acted on the sheriff’s
request to resolve the dispute.
“We have been working on
the process,” he said. “Parts
Enterprises has turned it over
to their attorney. With it having
gone to the litigious state, I'm
not really going to comment
beyond that,” Lee said.
State Health Planning Review
Board favored the approval
of Northeast Georgia’s CON
application.
Barrow Regional took its
last legal avenue in March
2008, when it filed a request
for judicial review.
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Sheriff continued from 1A
Hospital continued from 1A