Where Most Needed

This past week's trial and conviction of Lynchburg mayor Carl Hutcherson gained prominence because it involved money donated by Jerry Falwell Jr. to a nonprofit development company associated with Mr./Rev. Hutcherson's church.  Yet at the heart of the case were forged minutes of a board meeting and checks signed in blank by the nonprofit's director.  If minimal internal controls had been observed, this fraud would never have happened. 

Here is the portal for the trial coverage from the Lynchburg News & Advance, and AP story during the trial from the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the final AP story as it appeared in the Washington Post.) 

Day four of the trial featured the testimony of Davida Wingfield, the consultant who was responsible for setting up Trinity New Life Community Development Corporation.  After the bank questioned the transaction from the nonprofit to the funeral home, the mayor told Ms. Wingfield to draw up board minutes authorizing the transaction.  She testified that she felt it was wrong to draft minutes for a meeting she knew never took place, but she went ahead and prepared them anyway. 

Church members associated with the CDC were not aware that the donation had been made.  Checks from the CDC to the funeral home also included the signature of Cheryl Glass, the director of CDC.  The AP reports that she testified that she had never seen the checks, but that she had signed blank checks because it had been difficult to coordinate schedules to get the required dual signatures. 

Ms. Wingfield had been granted immunity from prosecution and it does not appear that Ms. Glass was ever considered responsible.  (It is not clear whether the CDC was ever created; no Form 990 appears in Guidestar.) 

In a phone conversation between Jerry Falwell Jr. and Mr. Hutcherson about his contribution to the CDC, Falwell (Jr.) had said that it was important that any transaction between the CDC and the funeral home be recorded as a loan.  (The phone conversation was taped as part of a bribery investigation that instead turned up fraud, as explained in this motion to allow the admission of the taped evidence.)

Now, if you think I am going to end with a quote about evil triumphing when the good do nothing, I am not.  But you can read here an essay on that oft-quoted but bogus catchphrase attributed to Edmund Burke.