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UPDATE: HISTORY OF DECEPTION -- VA
ATTORNEYS
CONVICTED OF DESTROYING DOCUMENTS -- In 1995
two VA attorneys were sentenced to federal prison
for
destroying documents critical to veterans'
claims.
All stories regarding the VA's shredder scandal
can be found on this page... click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/VAshredderscandal.htm
Story below:
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UPDATE: HISTORY OF DECEPTION -- VA ATTORNEYS
CONVICTED OF DESTROYING DOCUMENTS
In 1995 two VA attorneys were sentenced to
federal prison for destroying documents critical to veterans' claims.
by Larry Scott
(research by Eric)
As the shredder scandal continues to unfold at
the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA), many veterans find themselves
amazed that such a thing could happen. How could employees of the
Veterans' Benefits Administration (VBA) toss critical documents into
shredder bins at their Regional Offices (VAROs)? Full background
here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/VAshredderscandal.htm
 The
answer is simple: They've had lots of great examples.
In 1987 the VA was caught destroying documents
critical to the disability claims of Atomic Test Vets and fined by a
Federal Judge. That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfoct08/nf102008-1.htm
While it is difficult to associate the face of
the perpetrators with that event, a few years later, in 1995, that
changed.
The stories are long and complicated. But,
here's the short version without all the legal gobbledygook: Two VA
attorneys working for the Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA) destroyed
documents critical to veterans' claims.
One of the attorneys was Lawrence R. Gottfried.
Court papers explain what happened:
From 1971 until August 1994, Gottfried served as
an Attorney Advisor to the Board of Veterans' Appeals in the Department
of Veterans Affairs. The three-member Board decides veterans' appeals
from determinations of the Department's regional offices denying
disability benefits. The files in these cases typically contain the
veterans' claims, medical and service records, and statements supporting
the claims. Gottfried's job was to review the case file and prepare a
draft decision for the Board granting or denying the appeal. If needed
records were missing from the file, Gottfried would quickly dispose of
the appeal by recommending a remand of the case to the regional office
for further administrative action.
An investigation by the Department's Office of the
Inspector General revealed that Gottfried systematically tampered with
the files in order to reduce his workload. Rather than preparing a
proposed merits decision for the Board, Gottfried removed documents from
the case file, destroyed them, and then recommended that the case be
sent back to the regional office because the file was incomplete. From
February 9, 1994, to May 10, 1994, the Inspector General copied
thirty-eight veterans' appeals files before the cases were assigned to
Gottfried. In thirty-two of the cases, Gottfried removed and destroyed
medical records, service records and other documents, and, in each case,
he recommended that the Board remand without deciding the merits of the
appeal. Some of the missing documents were found among trash on the curb
outside Gottfried's home and in his garage. Nearly all of the documents
recovered had been torn, cut or mutilated in some fashion.
Gottfried was sentenced to 15 months in federal
prison. The Gottfried judgment
is here for your reading
pleasure...
Then, there's the case of Jill L. Rygwalski.
Again, from court papers, with edits for clarity:
On June 13, 1995, defendant Rygwalski, who
was employed as an attorney at the Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA) ...
from August, 1990, until her resignation in February, 1994, entered a
plea of guilty before this Court ... charging her with the Mutilation of
Government Documents ... The defendant has acknowledged destroying and
/or forging documents in at least 18 veterans' appeals files.
This disposition was the result of a
government investigation ... which revealed that the defendant had been
systematically and repeatedly destroying and forging documents in files
of veterans whose appeals from denials of disability claims were pending
before the BVA. This destruction was accomplished by the defendant
in one of two ways. The defendant either altered and / or forged
the contents of various handwritten statements made by veterans in
support of their claims or she removed essential documents, such as
medical records, from their files. The defendant would then use
the contents of the forgeries or the absence of these documents as
reasons justifying why the veterans' appeals should be remanded instead
of being decided on the merits.
Rygwalski was also sentenced to 15 months in
federal prison. The Rygwalski
judgment is here...
Gottfried and Rygwalski both indicated that they
were trying to lighten their workload and thought they would get bigger
bonuses. Rygwalski even went so far as
to blame her behavior on her supervisor, her husband and her domineering
father. Both attorneys were disbarred.
Do we have a pattern here? Yes. The
VA will say that they have directives in place expressly forbidding this
type of behavior. As the kids say: Duh? Of course there
are rules and regulations against this type of behavior.
But, there is no way to guarantee that this is
not continuing to happen.
Whether deliberate, or otherwise, the problem of
missing documents at the VA is at a critical level.
I received the following from a former BVA
attorney who is now in private practice. His take on this problem
from a former "insider" offers valuable insight:
When I was a Board attorney I simply did not
believe claimants who said that they sent in documents to VA during
their claims process. Keeping a claim pending can be a very big deal
when it comes to the effective date of an award ... While documents can
be misfiled -- either because of a common name or a transposed claim
number -- it just seemed highly unlikely that so many documents would go
missing.
I have since changed my view as a result of personal experience.
The Appeals Management Center in Washington
is the worst so far. More than half of documents mailed or faxed never
seem to make their way to a claims file ... [In a case at one RO] I sent
in medical evidence establishing a medical relationship between service
and a current disability. The Postal Service tracked the delivery to the
RO. When the claims file was returned to the Board I noted that the
medical document was not in the claims file. I hand delivered another
copy after my review. I have other examples, but you get the picture.
The point is not to vaguely complain about VA or its adjudication. The
material is not easy, and it is not black and white. Reasonable people
can reasonably disagree about the weight of evidence. No, the complaint
is far more basic -- is the process fair? It simply is not when evidence
is destroyed prior to placement in a claims file. This is a management
problem. They have not trained low level clerical employees to do their
jobs, neglected to provide adequate resources for the job, or perhaps
simply hired brain dead employees. Or all three. Supervisors need to be
held accountable. But they won’t be.
The problem is more widespread than VA has acknowledged.
Now, will VA acknowledge it and doing something
about it?
There is no acceptable level of missing documents
critical to a veteran's claim.
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posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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