Sim Hoffman, M.D., Indicted With Three Others for Workers’ Comp Insurance Fraud In May 2011, Has His Case Continued In Orange County Superior Court To December 6th 2013. Judge Absolutely Beyond Fed Up. By Lonce LaMon - November 19, 2013
Sim Hoffman, M.D., a radiologist based in Buena Park, California, is the head of the Better Sleeping Medical Center in Buena Park, California, who also works under the rubric of Advanced Professional Imaging. He and his consorts, Thomas Heric, M.D., Beverly Mitchell, his office manager, and Louis Santillan, his collector and hearing rep, appeared in Orange County Superior Courthouse room C-40 before Judge William Froeberg just last Friday morning, November 15th. A trial date has not yet been set almost two and a half years after this indictment by the Orange County District Attorney’s office for over 17 million dollars in workers’ compensation insurance fraud.
Deputy District Attorney, Shaddi Kamiabipour, who is prosecuting this case, has stated that her office only considered a fraction of the cases which could have been considered for indictment because of the magnitude of this fraud. If her office hadn’t made that decision, she expressed, her office could have never gotten their arms around a case against the Hoffman group. Thus, the indictment only included 17 million dollars’ worth of inappropriate charges to workers’ compensation claims departments for bogus sleep studies and single fiber EMGs, which were never performed. The Orange County DA’s office let go, for practical purposes, of potentially millions of more dollars on cases they didn’t look at.
When the court room opened, Thomas Heric went to sit in the very back of the room, as he usually does, and Sim Hoffman sat on the door-side gallery on the end just one row behind Beverly Mitchell, and Louis Santillan sat in the middle seats near his slender, and very strikingly attractive dark haired attorney. Thomas Heric, who is a neurologist, is a remarkably tall man who must be at least six feet, six or seven inches tall, at the very least. He is near half that length in width at his girth, is in his mid-70s, and appeared this day as usual with his attractive, younger wife who has just longer than chin length, dark brown hair. Sim Hoffman appeared in a dark blue suit wearing a red tie with dark stripes; Beverly Mitchell wore a black suit, white blouse with black collar, and her longer than chin length hair was vibrantly burgundy colored and weaved with a dark brown color. Both are attractive people in their early 60s.
Sim Hoffman, M.D., with his red tie blowing in the breeze, leaves Orange County Superior Court on Friday, November 15th, 2013 with his attorney, Richard Moss, who is using a walker. Moss was injured in a car accident about three months ago. Sim Hoffman's case with the three other defendants was continued to December 6th 2013.
Two other cases were heard at the beginning, right off the bat, when the judge first took the bench. The Deputy District Attorney, Shaddi Kamiabipour, waited on the left side of the court room from the perspective of the entrance door and the orientation of anyone in the gallery seats. Shaddi wore a brown leather jacket over a brown and crème colored print dress. She has brown weaved, layered hair which falls to her shoulders.
The judge then left the bench. A little while later, the bailiff asked Shaddi if she was ready. She replied, “We’re waiting for Marlon Stapleton.”
Marlon Stapleton is the defense attorney representing Beverly Mitchell. Just seconds after Shaddi said they were waiting for Stapleton, he walked into the court room. He made a comment about not having really made his day if he didn’t start it out in court room C-5. He took his place immediately before the judge up behind the swinging door. He looked quite fine in his dark green suit with a yellow and orange checkered tie.
The bailiff announced that court was now in session. Richard Moss, Sim Hoffman’s attorney, appeared with his partner Bill Fleming. Moss, who is normally thin, appeared much thinner in his grey suit. He walked using a walker. Over three months ago, he asked for a continuance because he was involved in a car accident. It is clear Moss has been seriously injured. This case had been continued on an on-going basis because of the defense’s 995 motion, but in August it was continued further because of Moss’s car accident.
Now the judge, William Froeberg, has a tentative ruling. The 995 motion—the defenses’ attack against the DA’s case-- is a challenge against the indictment citing lack of probable cause, insufficient evidence, and even a conflict of interest. Part of the defense’s challenge is their argument that the DA’s office has a conflict of interest because they receive money from the California Department of Insurance in the form of grants funding the prosecution of insurance fraud. This money comes out of a surcharge that is charged to employers via their workers’ compensation policies. The defense claims that since the employers are supplying the money to the Orange County District Attorney they are in a conflict of interest since they are supplying the money to promote their own interests. But, of course, the counter-argument has been made that the Department of Insurance independently allocates the grants based upon many factors—numbers of insurance fraud cases being prosecuted, size of DA’s department, population. And that a minority of the individuals on the Insurance Commissioner’s advisory board for the grants are from the insurance industry. The majority are not from the insurance industry.
Marlon Stapleton started out immediately with a 1050 motion, which is a motion for a continuance. The judge stated he was not inclined to grant it. He growled that he’s gone through two feet of paperwork, 50 different papers, and he won’t be doing it any more. He’s done.
Stapleton objected by stating he’s not ready to argue the motion today. His law partner, a Ms. Erickson, is not here because she has a bad back, and she is going to argue the motion.
Judge Froeberg then says, “I’m trying to restrain myself.” Stapleton says again, repeating himself, “I’m not prepared to argue the motion.” Froeberg complains, very annoyed, “This has been going on for a year and a half.” Stapleton continues to beg and plead, “I’m asking for a short courtesy. We are just not ready to argue today.”
Then Marlon Stapleton continued to talk about Ms. Erickson’s bad back.
Deputy DA Shaddi Kamiabipour then said, “Nothing’s changed. Nothing is going to change.”
Marlon Stapleton: “I am just not ready to argue the motion today. That can’t be done without Ms. Erickson.”
Judge William Froeberg: “I’m done with this! I have spent more hours on this than any other case in my life!”
Marlon Stapleton: “I heard the DA objecting to the continuance…”
Judge William Froeberg: “She’s not objecting. I’m objecting!”
Marlon Stapleton: “I just got back into town. I don’t want my counsel coming in on medication. We feel there are issues the court has not addressed. If the court wants to do it sooner…” (than December 13th or 30th, which he had proposed earlier).
Judge William Froeberg: “I don’t want to do it at all! I need a whole new storage unit to put all this stuff in.”
Marlon Stapleton: “If the court would like an earlier date than this? December 6th?”
Judge William Froeberg: “Alright. But there’s a caveat. I will not receive anything in excess of 10 pages.”
And that was that. It’s December 6th now for the defense’s 995 motion to be heard in its final argument. The judge was so fed up Friday he was actually funny. The court clerk, Laura Hoyle, expressed astonishment and clear emotion of being overwhelmed because of the mega-volume of documents in this case when this writer went into the C-40 court room several months ago to view the case file. She didn’t know where to start with something to give to me to read. The Indictment itself is six inches high. But, after all, it’s for 887 counts of insurance fraud.
Unbelievable...
Lonce LaMon, journalist, lonce@adjustercom.com; copyright adjustercom; all rights reserved.
Adjuster / Examiner Claims Examiner Santa Ana Unified School District Santa Ana, CA
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