FITTING A PUNISHMENT TO WHITE-COLLAR CRIME September 12, 2000, Tuesday, METRO EDITION Copyright 2000 The Roanoke Times & World News Roanoke Times & World News WHITE-COLLAR crime rarely prompts the outrage or draws the lengthy prison sentences of street crimes. It leaves no violated or bleeding victim; its perpetrators are often church-going community leaders who stand before the judge wearing tailored suits and repentant expressions. Yet such financial crimes can devastate an entire community rather than robbing a lone victim. Their impact can last for years, stealing crucial services or a lifetime's savings through crimes invisible to their victims. In Lee County, four prominent citizens have not only violated the trust of their neighbors. They have endangered the community's future by undermining a cornerstone of this rural region - its hospital. The men - James Luther Davis, Richard Charles Norton, Charles Fugate and Michael Redman - helped to bankrupt the Lee County Community Hospital and defrauded government health-care programs through six years of elaborate schemes and kickbacks. Today, the debt-ridden hospital has cut its staff and services and is struggling to stay open. Elderly patients and pregnant women must drive an hour to the next hospital for dialysis and obstetrics clinics, adding expense and risk to their care. These four men acted not out of need, but out of greed. As prosperous professionals, they used a health-care system designed to care for their neighbors and the medically indigent to finance a Mercedes-Benz lifestyle. Davis made this possible by consolidating in his own hands the jobs of hospital administrator, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, director of human resources and corporate compliance officer. Lee County's experience should be a cautionary tale for other communities that administrators, no matter how admired, need oversight and limits on their concentration of power. One of the poorest counties in the state, Lee had hoped to attract new jobs with the long-awaited widening of U.S. 58 and the opening of a new federal prison. Now, its citizens worry that the hospital's shaky outlook could discourage new industries. In determining punishment, the judge should keep in mind that these men who had tremendous potential to do good instead stole the jobs of 250 hospital workers, robbed many patients of local medical care and put at risk their community's hope for a brighter future. to unsubscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to subscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] more good stuff at http://theMezz.com/alerts ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
