Wood preservers sentenced in counterfeit gradestamp case

1n ULMINATING over three !r years of investigation and legal work, Judge Charles Simpson sentenced Vince Escue, Harvel Escue, Alvin Escue and the Escue Wood Preserving Co. (EWP) on a charge of trademark infringement on July 7, 1989, in Louisville, Ky.

All four defendants (three individuals and the corporation) had earlier pleaded guilty to one felony count of trademark infringement based on their misuse of a Timber Products Inspection, Inc. (TP) gradestamp, according to C. Cleve Gambill, the First Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

The three individual defendants were sentenced to probation for a period of three years. As a special condition of probation, they are required to actually serve 90 days in a federal facility. In addition, all four defendants were required to forfeit $25,000 (a total of $100,000) to the United States through the U.S. Attorney's Office Asset Forfeiture Fund.

Story at a Glance

Kentucky wood preserving company officials jailed for misusing gradestamps... thousands of feet of lumber with counterfeit marks sold. Timber Products Inspection's role in the case.

Timber Products Inspection, Inc. of Conyers, Ga., and Portland, Or., reportedly is the third largest U.S. agency approved by the American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) to gradestamp lumber and to provide gradestamping supervisory services to manufacturers. According to Lon J. Sibert, vice president of the Lumber Division for Timber Products, they were informed of a strange stamp in Illinois in May, 1986. An intensive field investigation in that state, as well as Indiana and Kentucky, culminated with the discovery of incriminating evidence of EWP's involvement in

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