Drug Charges Added in Copter Inquiry : Marine Was Already Accused of Tampering With Instruments

A Tustin-based Marine helicopter crew chief already being investigated on allegations of tampering with aircraft switches and instruments faced additional charges Tuesday of using marijuana and disobeying orders by placing a foreign substance into a urine sample bottle during a squadron drug sweep last month.

The new charges against Cpl. Kirk Hill were made public Tuesday as the Marine Corps formally began taking testimony involving earlier allegations against Hill of willful dereliction of duty, intentionally trying to damage a helicopter, attempting to injure or destroy the national defense and willfully and wrongfully hazarding a vessel--an old law that could be a capital offense.

Kevin McDermott, a Santa Ana lawyer representing Hill, called the new charges harassment against his client. McDermott said the corps had even seriously considered charging Hill with attempted bribery of a military police officer because two dollar bills stuck to his identification card when he recently presented it as he entered the base gate.

Hill, according to testimony from witnesses Tuesday, freely admitted that he “cross-connected” switches in October in a CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter to prove that pilots were flying the aircraft even when they knew they were unsafe.

Sgt. John R. Grygo, a maintenance control officer, testified that he had been on duty Oct. 26 when Hill returned from a Sea Stallion flight and said he “had switched the plugs around, and I want to know why the pilots flew the aircraft.”

“I told him, ‘Why did you do that?’ “Grygo testified. “He said he wanted to burn pilots for flying unsafe aircraft.”

Grygo said he told Hill, “You have dug your own grave.”

The hearing that got under way Tuesday is equivalent to a civilian grand jury proceeding to determine whether there is enough evidence to sustain charges.

Following testimony from government and defense witnesses, Capt. Thomas Scully, the hearing officer, will recommend that the charges against Hill either be referred to a court-martial, be solved administratively or be dropped. The commanding officers will review Scully’s recommendations.

The hearing at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is expected to last several days.

Testimony Tuesday indicated that Hill switched the plugs governing parts of the helicopter’s automatic flight control system, which was compared to an automobile’s power steering.

The cross-connection, which in itself did not endanger the helicopter, was detected by the helicopter’s pilots in a preflight check before the aircraft was airborne, the pilot said. But it was decided that the aircraft would take off anyway because other instrument checks showed there was nothing wrong with the flight control system.

When the 45-minute flight was over, the pilots reported the malfunction that they spotted during the instrument check. Hill, according to Cpl. Christopher Pacheco, an electrical maintenance inspector, swapped the plugs and then “put them back after landing.”

Much of the testimony during the first day of the hearing centered around the seriousness of Hill’s action and whether the aircraft should have been flown if the switched wires were detected.

Pacheco testified that the pilots should not have taken off after their preflight check showed a possible problem in the flight control system.

‘They Should Have Called’

“They should have called for someone to come out and trouble-shoot,” Pacheco said. He said the switch of the plugs could not affect the integrity of the system but if something did go wrong with the flight system the pilot would be misled by the instruments that were switched.

But Capt. Bruce Petit, the senior pilot on the CH-53D on Oct. 26, told the hearing he was “convinced he had an operable system” or he would not have made the flight.

He said checks after the problem was discovered convinced him that everything was functioning properly.

Capt. Bradley N. Garber, the government’s attorney, said he will call at least one witness to testify about the marijuana-related charges against Hill.

One of the new charges accused Hill of “wrongfully introducing a foreign substance into a sample bottle designated for his urine only” during a drug check of members of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 on or about Dec. 22, l987, with the intention of producing incorrect test results.

Another accused Hill of using marijuana at the Tustin air station or in the surrounding community sometime from Nov. 23 to Dec. 22.