http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-bk-nasa051205,0,2695077.story
Most counts dismissed against ex-NASA worker By Roger Roy Sentinel Staff Writer
May 12, 2005, 4:41 PM EDT
A federal judge in Orlando today dismissed most of the charges against a former NASA employee accused of falsifying inspections on the space shuttle Discovery.
Billy T. Thornton, 54, whose trial began Monday, is accused of failing to make 83 safety inspections in 2002 and 2003 while working as a NASA inspector. He was charged last year with 166 felony counts of fraud.
Today, after the government rested its case against Thornton, U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell threw out a dozen of the charges against Thornton, and took under advisement a defense motion to dismiss all charges. After court resumed at 2:30 p.m. he tossed out all but four of the 166 charges.
In the first charges he dismissed, Presnell said the government had failed to prove that Thornton didn't do his job overseeing work on the shuttle by technicians from United Space Alliance, a contractor for NASA, or that he committed fraud by putting his stamp on paperwork showing the work had been done.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Hinshelwood argued that NASA rules required Thornton personally to inspect technicians' work on wiring and other jobs.
But Presnell agreed with defense attorneys Kepler Funk and Alan Diamond that NASA's rules weren't clear, and that Thornton could comply by ensuring that inspectors working for USA were on hand to oversee the USA technicians' work.
"He's there, as I understand it, to oversee the inspection by the USA person," Presnell said.
Testimony showed that, in the counts Presnell dismissed, Thornton was present and watched USA inspectors check the job, the judge said.
"I don't see how the government has proven its case with respect to these counts," Presnell said.
Thornton, who worked for NASA for 15 years before he was fired in September 2003, did not react when the judge dismissed the first counts. But when court was recessed he shook hands with his lawyers and smiled.
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