Mold-fraud suspect taken to hospital on first day of trial

[Guest guest]

Mold-fraud suspect taken to hospital on first day of trial

By* Wood, Journal Inquirer

09/13/2007

http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?

newsid=18814421 & BRD=985 & PAG=461

A New York man accused of defrauding three Connecticut school

systems, including Manchester's, with false claims about his mold

cleanup process was taken Wednesday to a New Haven hospital after

complaining of chest pains during the first day of his federal

trial.

The man, Schongar, who is in his early 60s, fell to his knees

just after the 12 jurors and two alternates left Senior Judge Ellen

Bree Burns' courtroom in U.S. District Court in New Haven for the

afternoon recess.

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Schongar - who had sought a 40-day delay in the trial in a motion he

filed Monday on his own behalf - was helped back into his chair.

Slumping far back in the chair, he said in answer to a

question, " Yeah. I have chest pains. "

Court security officers and U.S. marshals came to his aid as sirens

could be heard outside. Later, medical personnel from the New Haven

Fire Department arrived, administered oxygen and other treatment to

Schongar, and took him out of the courthouse on a stretcher designed

to support him in a sitting position.

Schongar, who carries a little extra weight and has a ring of white

hair around a bald spot, held part of a sheet over his face as a

small gaggle of news photographers outside the courthouse took

pictures of him. He was taken away by ambulance. One firefighter

said he was going to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Burns later brought the jurors back into the courtroom and told them

that the trial would continue Friday morning, rather than this

morning as had been planned.

Although the circumstances of Schongar's attack raise obvious

questions as to whether he was malingering, his court-appointed

lawyer, Kurt F. Zimmermann of New Haven, told a reporter, " He has a

history of heart issues. The paramedics indicated he was in

distress. It's no joke. "

Only one witness testified in Schongar's trial Wednesday.

That was Special Agent Leonard F. Borges of the federal

Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigation division,

who was the lead investigator on the case.

Borges' testimony focused on a " technical bulletin " that the agent

obtained from Easton's police chief.

The agent has said in an affidavit that Schongar sent the bulletin

to Easton school officials in response to a request in the fall of

2003. He was prevented from testifying to that by the court hearsay

rule. But Borges did testify that an identical document was found

during a search of Schongar's home in Clifton Park, N.Y., on Jan.

14, 2004.

Borges testified that he checked a national EPA pesticide database

and found no information under Schongar's name or the company name

he used in his dealings with Easton, Microb Phase LLC.

But when Borges checked the EPA registration number listed on the

technical bulletin, he said, he found that it related to a product

called Microbe Shield, which was registered to Aegis Environmental

Management Inc. of Midland, Mich.

Borges testified that a technical bulletin for the Aegis product was

found during the search of Schongar's home and that it was identical

in many respects to Schongar's technical bulletin, which identified

his product by the slightly different name " Microb Shield. "

Borges also testified about a number of other questionable documents

found in Schongar's home office, including a diploma indicating that

he had received a master's degree in " engineering science " from

American University in " Heidleburg, " Germany in 1976.

The two sides agreed that a police officer from Heidelberg, the

correct spelling of the city name, would have testified that his

search of records had revealed that there was no educational

institution called American University in the city at that time.

Borges also presented a reference letter bearing the signature of a

man identified as the president of Eastern Medevac Systems Inc.,

indicating that Schongar's business had helped clean up equipment,

vehicles, and buildings after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,

2001, eliminating the odor of death from them.

The two sides agreed that a New York state health official would

have testified that no ambulance company called Eastern Medevac

Systems was operating in or around 2001, although such a company had

existed from 1979 to 1982.

In Manchester, Schongar did a mold cleanup project at the Highland

Park School in 2000 or 2001, according to Huot, who was the

school system's business manager at the time. Several weeks after

the Highland Park project, Schongar did smaller anti-mold projects

at the Bowers and Keeney schools, Huot has said.

In addition to Manchester and Easton, Schongar is accused of

defrauding the Bristol school system. He faces three counts of mail

fraud and two counts of wire fraud.

[Guest guest]

It will be interesting what happens with this.

I really hope that he does serious jail time.

And the districts share responsibility too for not checking him out

thoroughly.

When they pick low bids, they are trying to escape liability.

How could LONG-neglected buldings possibly be remediated for what sometimes

they want to pay?