The 10 Most Viewed Local Stories Of 2008
Jan 5, 2009 8:30 pm US/Eastern
Former Boeing Worker Sentenced For Vandalism
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ―
A former Boeing employee was sentenced Monday to five months in prison and five months on home confinement for vandalizing a $24 million military helicopter during his last shift on a suburban Philadelphia assembly line.
Matthew Montgomery, of Trevose, told the judge that he did not know how to deal with the mounting tension and tedium of his job. The 33-year-old also was upset about being transferred to another job at the Ridley Township plant after applying for positions at other Boeing Co. sites.
"I know now that a factory environment is not the place for me," Montgomery said in court Monday.
In a sentencing memo that also outlined family problems beginning in Montgomery's childhood, public defender Mara Meehan wrote: "He was upset about the repetitive nature of his tasks. He felt that his requests for a job transfer had repeatedly been ignored by supervisors."
Montgomery used his work-issued wire cutters to sever about 70 electrical wires running from the cockpit to the main body of a nearly finished H-47 Chinook on May 10.
"In a psychiatric evaluation conducted on June 18, 2008, Mr. Montgomery described the combination of pressure on the job as well as at home as being 'too much' and that he took his frustration out on a machine because he would never harm another person," she wrote.
Montgomery, who earned $19 an hour, also was ordered to pay $110,000 in restitution.
The helicopter would not have been able to fly, so there was no risk of injury, and the damage was readily spotted by plant officials two days later. The vandalism led Boeing officials to shut down the assembly line for two days, causing additional losses.
The same week, a suspicious washer was found in a second helicopter. No one has been charged in that incident, which remains under investigation, authorities said Monday.
U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick sentenced Montgomery at the low end of the 10- to 16-month guideline range.
"Although the defendant has no prior criminal history, the defendant's crime was violent and senseless," Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Votaw wrote in a recent memo asking for a sentence within the guideline range.
Montgomery was ordered to report to prison on Feb. 17. He pleaded guilty in September to one count of destroying property under contract to the government.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Mom In Scandalous Sleepover Speaks Out
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
