September 30, 2002
BFA indictments overturned; more likely
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___PHOENIX (ABP)--A judge has thrown out criminal indictments against five former Baptist Foundation of Arizona officials accused of defrauding investors out of millions of dollars.
___Phoenix Judge Frank Galati said Sept. 12 that some evidence used in obtaining the indictments was improper and prejudicial. He returned the case to a grand jury, which likely will bring new charges.
___"We anticipate re-filing the charges as soon as possible and are committed to holding the defendants accountable for their role in the demise of BFA," Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
___The delay doesn't affect a civil settlement promising investors they will recover some of their money. Judge Edward Burke approved out-of-court settlements Sept. 13 involving Arthur Andersen and a Phoenix law firm that represented the foundation.
___William Pierre Crotts, the foundation's former chief executive officer; Thomas Dale Grabinski, the former general counsel and vice president; Lawrence Dwain Hoover and Harold DeWayne Friend, both former board members; and Richard Lee Rolles, an accounting consultant, had pleaded not guilty to charges handed down by a grand jury in May 2001.
___The five defendants faced a combined 32 charges of criminal theft, fraud and racketeering.
___Three other former officials pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for cooperating in the investigation.
___All are accused of misleading investors by concealing the fact that the foundation was losing money. Foundation officials allegedly continued to recruit new investors, many of them elderly, by promising high yields and that part of the money would be used to further Southern Baptist work. Some transferred their life savings to the foundation, which went bankrupt in November 1999.
___Defense lawyers at the Sept. 12 hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court successfully argued that a letter from Arthur Andersen blaming foundation officials for the collapse was unfair to their clients. Judge Galati, in dismissing the charges against the five officials, called the letter "irrelevant, immaterial and grossly prejudicial."
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