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Employee charged with misconduct alleged to have hired professional actors to testify on his behalf during a formal disciplinary hearing

Employee charged with misconduct alleged to have hired professional actors to testify on his behalf during a formal disciplinary hearing
Source: Press Release ? Office of the Attorney General, February 16, 2010

Cautioning that criminal charges now pending against William Fals-Stewart are merely accusations and that "he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Fals-Stewart, a former SUNY at Buffalo researcher, hired actors to testify on his behalf during a disciplinary hearing.

In September 2004, Fals-Stewart was accused of scientific misconduct for allegedly fabricating data in federally funded studies he was undertaking as an employee at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Research Institute on Addictions.

The Attorney General?s press release said that three witnesses called by Fals-Stewart testified by telephone because Fals-Stewart claimed they were out of town. In reality they were actors who thought they were taking part in a mock trial. Fals-Stewart paid the actors to testify. He also provided them with scripts to use during the proceedings "that were riddled with inaccuracies regarding his research."

The criminal charges allege that Fals-Steward hired professional actors to portray real people who were familiar with his projects to testify on his behalf during an administrative disciplinary hearing. Fals-Stewart was exonerated of these charges of misconduct because of the false testimonies provided by the actors.

Significantly, the actors had been previously employed by Fals-Stewart to participate in legitimate training videos. In this instance Fals-Steward told them that they would be performing in a mock trial training exercise. The actors were not aware that they were actually testifying at a real administrative disciplinary hearing, nor did they know they were, in fact, impersonating "real-life" individuals rather than "role-playing" fictional characters.

Following the dismissal of the disciplinary charges, Fals-Steward claimed that the allegations of misconduct had tarnished his reputation and he sued the University, seeking $4 million in damages.*

In the course of defending the University and the State in the court action initiated by Fals-Stewart, the Attorney General conducted an investigation of the claims filed against the University and it was in the course of this investigation that the alleged fraud was discovered.

A criminal investigation followed. As a result Fals-Stewart was arrested and charged with Attempted Grand Larceny in the First Degree (a Class C felony); three counts of Perjury in the First Degree (a Class D felony); three counts of Identity Theft in the First Degree (a Class D felony); two counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree (a Class E felony); and three counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree (a Class E felony).

* The AG's press release reports that Fals-Stewart has withdrawn his lawsuit seeking damages.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on February 18, 2010 (boomark / email).