Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Former engineer at Sanmina SCI pleads guilty to taking Publice Saftey Radios.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 21:16:03 -0400

Man pleads guilty to taking radios
By Bill Freehling
Lynchburg News and Advance
Wednesday, May 21, 2003

A former engineer at Sanmina SCI who sold eight stolen emergency communication
radios to the Lynchburg Fire and EMS Department pleaded guilty Tuesday in
Lynchburg Circuit Court to unlawfully taking property.  Allan Frank Johnson, 43,
of 1441 Nelson Drive, worked at Sanmina for at least seven years before being laid
off in August 2001, said Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Doucette.

Doucette said Johnson took the Ericsson MRK portable radios - which are similar to
those used by police, fire and rescue crews in the city and counties - from
Sanmina and then programmed them to be compatible on the regional emergency radio
system.

In September 2001, Johnson sold the fire department eight radios for $5,200. When
new, Doucette said, the radios are worth about $3,400 each. In an earlier
interview, Lynchburg Fire Chief Buddy Martinette said the department thought it
was buying legitimate radios. He took responsibility for not making calls to find
out how Johnson got the equipment, however.  In January 2002, Lynchburg police
searched Johnson's residence. They found equipment including computer software,
manuals, computers, radios and radio parts belonging to Ericsson and Sanmina.

Gregory Scott Simms, a former Lynchburg firefighter, led investigators to Johnson
after Simms was caught stealing radios from Sanmina. Simms, who worked part time
as an emergency medical technician at Sanmina, told investigators he took radios
to Johnson to be programmed.

Simms resigned from the fire department after he was arrested and charged with
grand larceny on Dec. 17, 2001.  Last May, Simms accepted a plea agreement that
reduced the charge to unlawfully taking property, a misdemeanor. He agreed to
cooperate in the case against Johnson, which Doucette said Simms has now done. 
Simms' sentencing is scheduled for Friday. At that time, he will be convicted of
the misdemeanor and sentenced to six months in jail, all suspended.

Johnson had faced two felony counts of embezzlement - one for the radios, one for
the software used to program the radios. A conviction could have resulted in 40
years in prison.
Instead, Johnson agreed to a similar deal that Simms got - a misdemeanor
conviction and six months in jail, all suspended. Circuit Court Judge J. Leyburn
Mosby Jr. accepted the agreement Tuesday, calling it "compatible with the public
interest and appropriate with the facts of the case."

Doucette said he offered Johnson and his defense attorney, Joseph Sanzone, the
agreement because of several factors. Two key witnesses had moved, making a
difficult case even harder. It was possible that Johnson got the software from
outside the company. And Doucette also said it was hard to tell whether some
Sanmina employees were at times given radios for personal use.

"The bottom line is that the defendant took advantage of an atmosphere where some
employees viewed the company's property as their own," Doucette said in a
statement. "The defendant took it to a higher level. Instead of taking one radio
home for his personal use, he took many."

Doucette, who said he did not "easily enter into this agreement," also cited that
Johnson had no criminal record, and that the deal was similar to that received by
Simms. But he added that Johnson's actions were still wrong.  "While an employee
at Ericsson/SCI," Doucette said in his statement, "the defendant was faced with a
character test, and he failed the test. Today he publicly received his report
card."

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031769622575&path=!f
-- 
  		"NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
		Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

		"NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

		"WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
 	   The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/