Gil Carreon, Hector Porrata's attorney, was looking well that day with a nice bronze tan in one of his fine brown suits.  His beard and hair are getting whiter, but his mustache still has some dark hairs left.  Although he wouldn't have had time to have run off to the Mexican Riviera, he appeared as if he had just returned from a vacation in the sun.

But it's probably just his Mestizo heritage that gives him skin that bronzes from 5 minutes in the sun on a Sunday afternoon.

Gil fought hard for Hector Porrata, but often his arguments were not on the point. He showed everyone in the Court Room that he knows a lot about workers' compensation law, but too often these arguments were irrelevant.

Many times the DA made objections to Gil by claiming "irrelevant".  Often the Judge said, "What's your point?"  Once Gil responded, "Does the Court wish to hear from me?" 

But it was true from my perception as well, that way too many of his arguments were irrelevant and "off the wall" as one could say in our modern vernacular. One of Gil's arguments was that in Labor Code Section bla bla (the man is a walking Labor Code) it states that medical treatment bills have to be paid in a timely manner. This was his counter-argument to the evidence and argument presented by the DA and witness Linda White, who had been Hector's Unit Manager at AIG, that Hector was paying demand letters from WCSC & Associates, Rene Montes' company, before the demand letters were even reaching the inside of the AIG office.  Like Linda White expressed in her testimony at the end of the day on January 14th: you can't pay a demand letter if you haven't even received the demand letter yet.  The fact that Hector was paying them in advance of the date-stamped receipt date pointed to a conspiracy, and the reality that if Hector could pay amounts written in demand letters that he hadn't yet received in the file, he and Rene Montes had to somehow be "in cahoots". 

This action goes way beyond the call-of-duty of making "timely medical payments".  I don't think the Labor Code indicates anywhere that an adjuster has to make a payment before even receiving a demand letter, especially if it's self-procured medical treatment that may be questionable and needs time to be evaluated as to being "reasonable" and "necessary".  

But, Gil had to argue a defense the best he could.  And he did argue, but too often in the midst of such overwhelming evidence from the DA and witnesses, it seemed he could do no better than throw up smoke and mirrors. And a lot of red herrings. What else could he do?  He did what he could.

Mary Kreber, George Martinez's attorney, didn't present any specious arguments that I can remember, but she was a master of objections.  She pounced on many of the DA's questions with "objection, irrelevant, lacks foundation", or "argumentative", or "hearsay". Fred McBride, Rene Montes' attorney, made some relevant arguments but showed he didn't know the work comp claims business. He didn't understand the distinction, after a lot of testimony, about "authorizing a payment" versus "releasing a payment". 

So, as was predicable: the judge ruled in favor of the D.A.    

Judge Streger:  "I want to thank you for all your presentations and arguments.  Some of which are very creative.  I have found there is evidence that the offenses which the defendants have been charged with have been committed."

So, the Preliminary Hearing is over.  The judge has found there is sufficient evidence to potentially prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that the offenses charged have been committed by the defendants.  Therefore, a new arraignment has been set for February 16th 2010 in Orange County Court Room 5 at 8:30 am.

We'll see now on Tuesday, how the defendants now plead, and if anyone strikes a deal.  So far, all the defendants have pleaded not guilty. 

Readers may write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@adjustercom.com