Prosecutor lays out drug case against Thomas Brick
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By MARK GUNDERMAN mgunderman@chippewa.com
Tuesday, May 2, 2006 10:55 AM CDT
A betrayal of trust or bad record keeping? That’s what a Chippewa County jury is to decide this week in the case of former Chippewa Falls firefighter Thomas J. Brick, 49, 13398 42nd Ave.
Brick’s trial on 62 criminal charges including misconduct in office, possession of a narcotic drug, obtaining prescription drugs or controlled substances by fraud, forgery and theft began Monday in Chippewa County Court.
The prosecution alleges that as the member of the fire department in charge of the medical supplies for the emergency medical services, Brick stole from the morphine supply and falsified records to obtain more morphine or cover up the disappearance of morphine.
“Members of the fire department relied upon the trustworthiness of Mr. Brick. The evidence will show that trust was sadly misplaced,” Assistant District Attorney Roy Gay said in his opening statement.
Defense attorney Dick Wachowski had a different view.
“We have a situation here where the fire department because of a lack of record keeping and a lack of oversight is looking for a fall guy,” Wachowski said in his opening statement
Wachowski said Brick was the only one in the department in charge of ordering and keeping track of the drugs, not Chief Tom Larson, and all purchases had to be cleared with the medical director, which they were. The charges amount to an allegation that Brick diverted morphine for his own use, but there is no evidence Brick was ever using morphine, Wachowski said.
“He never did anything for his own benefit,” Wachowski said. “He did everything for the perceived benefit of the department.”
Wachowski will get a chance to portray the case in that way through cross-examination and calling of his own witnesses, but the first day of the trial belonged to the prosecution.
Gay described in his opening statement what he claimed the evidence would show:
The department by March 15 had used up almost its entire budget for medical supplies for the year and unusually large orders of morphine were a reason. Larson ordered Brick to order no more morphine in 2005.
Brick was also ordered to buy only 2 mg pre-loaded syringes in the future instead of 10 mg vials, because leftovers from the 10 mg packages frequently had to be disposed of.
Nevertheless, Brick continued to order morphine after March 15, and in the 10 mg size. He also violated an order that all morphine be stored in a safe in the battalion commander’s office by continuing to store it in a locker to which only he had access.
Of the morphine ordered after March 15, as much as 4000 milligrams are missing from supplies.
Brick removed 250 vials of morphine from the safe, telling Larson later that he sent it back to the company because it was near the expiration date. However, there is no paperwork to back up Brick’s claim, and morphine purchases by law cannot be returned.
On a number of occasions, paperwork filed by Brick appeared to be falsified, altered, or contain a forged signature.
However, it is up to Gay to actually present this evidence during the course of the trial, scheduled for four days.
Gay began with extended testimony from Larson, who testified to his directive that morphine purchases stop, and the discovery that they nonetheless continued.
Larson also described behavior by Brick that appeared to be evasive. According to Larson’s testimony:
When the continued morphine orders were discovered in July, Larson asked Brick to come in on his day off to discuss it. Brick did not want to come, and Larson ultimately ordered him to come in.
At the department, Larson confronted Brick about, among other things, the removal of the 250 vials from the safe. Brick claimed that the paperwork showing what he had done with it was at home. He was sent home to get it. Larson claimed he had no contact with Brick for four days, as Brick was off those days and did not answer calls or pages.
When Brick returned, he still claimed the paperwork was at home, then claimed it was in his wife’s car in Milwaukee. Larson suspended Brick at that point.
In cross examination of Larson, Wachowski focused on lax record keeping in the department.
The first day of testimony wrapped up with Gay’s redirect questioning of Larson, who may still be asked to return to the stand later in the trial.
Police officers who investigated the handling of morphine in the department were expected to testify today.
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