Alto man gets seven years in prison for stealing company trade secrets

LUFKIN — An Angelina County district judge sentenced an Alto businessman to seven years in prison Thursday for stealing company trade secrets from a Lufkin company at which he had worked.

A jury in October found Frank H. McClain Jr., 48, guilty of stealing an estimated $1.4 million worth of cards and back sheet notes the day he quit his technician's job in June 2001 with Didrikson and Associates, a company on Denman Avenue that services the petrochemical and pipeline industries.

Cards are flat, circuit chip boards used in control panels to operate gas and steam turbine generators at power plants. Back sheets are the guides technicians use to repair cards. A jury found that the notes written on the back sheets by technicians at the company, known as shortcuts to speeding up the repair process, were trade secrets.

Five months after his conviction, McClain testified Thursday he openly disagrees with the jury's verdict.

"I respect the jury's verdict, but don't agree. I didn't take any cards ...," he said.

During the sentencing hearing, two businessmen from Houston and New York testified McClain wrongly conducted business with them.

A Lake Jackson man testified McClain sold his inventory outside of their agreement for $7,500. He valued the inventory of cards to be worth more than $100,000.

A Mississippi businessman made similar allegations against McClain in October. The day after a jury convicted McClain, Garion Dillingham filed a 14-page report with the Alto Police Department. The report alleged McClain never paid his company, Dillingham Energy Services, for the electronic cards the company sent him in June. Dillingham valued the cards at $29,250.

During closing arguments, McClain's attorney, John Heath Jr. of Nacogdoches, asked the judge to consider sentencing his client to probation for the sake of McClain's elderly parents and his client's mental state.

McClain testified he was committed to Rusk State Hospital for two weeks after he quit Didrikson and Associates.

Angelina County District Judge Paul White gave three reasons for why he decided to sentence McClain to prison.

"No. 1, you're now a criminal. ... No. 2, I believe beyond a reasonable doubt in my mind that you have harmed not only Didrikson, but others. ... It is clear that you have caused harm to others in the way you conduct business. No. 3, I'm concerned about your (financial) living situation," White said.

Heath filed a motion for a new trial immediately after White sentenced McClain.