William Weeks, a Dartmouth Medical School professor of psychiatry and community and family medicine, will plead not guilty to federal conflict of interest charges for his involvement with contracts between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the College, according his attorney, Robert O'Neill.
Weeks, a physician at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., was charged on Friday with five federal misdemeanor counts by acting U.S. Attorney Paul Van de Graaf, according to court documents obtained by The Dartmouth. Van de Graaf and assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Ross will prosecute the case, Van de Graaf said in an interview with The Dartmouth. Van de Graaf and Ross declined to elaborate on the nature of the charges filed against Weeks.
Weeks could not be reached for comment by press time.
The College and the VA Medical Center's Public Affairs Office both declined to comment while the litigation is pending.
The U.S. Attorney's office also filed an 11-count civil complaint against Weeks on Friday, including five counts of conflict of interest, four counts of false claims, one count of "supplementing the salary of a government official" and one count of "breach of fiduciary duty," according to the civil complaint.
The government has not alleged that Weeks personally profited from his involvement with the contracts, or that he willfully engaged in criminal conduct. The complaint alleges that Weeks "knowingly submitted, or caused to be submitted" false claims to the VA for payment from the VA to the College for work that was supposed to be performed under the contract, and had not been completed.
Weeks faces a maximum possible penalty of one year in prison and fines of up to $100,000 in fines for each criminal count, as well as a maximum possible fine of $1.3 million in penalties for the civil complaint, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
O'Neill, who is a defense attorney at the firm Gravel and Shea in Burlington, Vt., said in an interview with The Dartmouth that Weeks did not do anything wrong.
"At all times, he made sure all of the individuals were aware of his activities and that he did not personally profit from any of these activities," O'Neill said.
The U.S. Attorney's office alleges that Weeks was involved with five fixed-price contracts in 2003, simultaneously serving as the VA contracting officer's technical representative and the College's principal investigator on the contracts. Weeks' responsibilities as the VA COTR included monitoring the VA contractor's performance to "assure compliance with the technical requirements of the contract" and "establishing a reliable record keeping system of the funds," according to the documents. As principal investigator for the College, Weeks was ultimately responsible for "carrying out the project's financial plan as presented in the funded proposal," the documents state. By concurrently filling both roles, Weeks was responsible for regulating the funding and for ensuring that the work was performed.
Weeks did not seek or obtain a waiver to allow him to represent both parties in the contract, according to the court documents. The lawsuit states that Weeks "knowingly participate[d] personally and substantially in a particular matter, namely, recommending, approving, monitoring, administering, and/or authorizing payments" of the contracts while aware that he had a financial interest or an imputed financial interest in the contracts.
Approximately $570,000 remaining from two of the five contracts was deposited into a reserve account at the College associated with Weeks, according to the documents. The lawsuit states that the money "was available to be spent on a wide range of matters at Weeks' discretion."
O'Neill said the reserve fund was used correctly and that Weeks did not benefit from the excess funds.
"When the scope of the contract as envisioned by Dr. Weeks, Dartmouth and the VA was not able to be implemented because the other government agency had a different view as to what the scope would be, the money was eventually returned to the government," O'Neill said.
Weeks had previously filed a lawsuit against the federal government on April 9, alleging that VA Office of the Inspector General employees illegally searched his' office at the VA Medical Center, copied Weeks' computer hard drive and interrogated Weeks' former secretary, according to court documents.
Weeks alleged that, through the investigation and subsequent illegal release of information to Weeks' superiors about the ongoing federal investigation, federal government representatives "intentionally and maliciously interfered" with his pending promotion to director of the Rural Health Resources Center-Eastern Region.
Weeks was notified that he did not receive the promotion approximately five months after the illegal search, according to Weeks' lawsuit.
Court documents also state that Weeks experienced severe depression and tried to commit suicide after learning of the investigation.
"[Weeks] could not sleep and became convinced that individuals at the VA OIG and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Burlington were intent on destroying his career and ruining him financially," the lawsuit states.
The seven-count suit against the government includes charges of illegal search and seizure, illegal disclosures and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Weeks has been a physician at the VA Medical Center since 1992, and since 2003 has spent most of his time conducting research and administering multiple VA programs, including the VA Quality Scholars Fellowship Program and the Veterans' Rural Health Initiative, according to the DMS web site.
Weeks received the National Rural Health Association's 2009 Outstanding Researcher Award for his contributions to health care for rural veterans on May 7, according to a DMS newsletter.
