The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General recently announced court activity in three trucking-related crime investigations. Here’s a summary of what happened with each:
Penn. drug testing firm shut down
Elizabeth Pope was ordered to stop all operations with the DOT for five years. This order came down after a debarment order issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Pope formerly operated Eastgate Laboratory Testing, a FMCSA-regulated drug testing firm.
In December 2014, Pope was sentenced to eight months house arrest and ordered to pay $109,000 in restitution for her conviction related to the falsification of FMCSA-regulated drug and alcohol testing of truck operators.
According to the DOT, Eastgate administered drug tests that included pre-employment, random and post-accident testing. The investigation determined that, between 2008 and 2012, Pope used the computer-generated signature of a doctor who had previously served as Eastgate’s medical review officer on required FMCSA paperwork.
She admitted to falsifying the documents to give the impression that all tests received necessary oversight and review. The doctor used by Pope stopped working with Eastgate in 2005.
