Aspen Medical Resources’ Defense To File A 995 Motion To Dismiss In Orange County 36 Million Dollar Workers’ Compensation Fraud Case. Next Court Appearance Set For August 29th 2014.
By Lonce LaMon - July 14, 2014
On Friday morning, July 11th 2014, the four defendants in the Aspen Medical Resources case appeared in Orange County Superior Court, court room C-30, before Judge John D. Conley.
The three owners appeared with their lawyers: Jeff Campau with counsel Paul Meyer, Landon Mirallegro with counsel Ray Rackauckas, and Abraham Khorshad with counsel Jack Early. The collector, Ryan McCracken, appeared with his lawyer David Swanson.
Both Campau and Mirallegro are men of about 40 years of age. They came into court in their dark suits, looking like fine, well-educated Anglo-Saxon men of the old, conservative Orange County breed. They sat in two of the seats near one another along the back wall of the court room—Jeff Campau sporting a blue and grey tie, and Landon Mirallegro wearing a red and dark blue diagonally striped tie. Their wholesome, handsome appearances belied the allegations of them committing 36 million dollars in workers’ compensation insurance fraud.
Abraham Khorshad has the looks of a Middle Easterner in his early sixties. Ryan McCracken appears to be the youngest of all, having light red hair and fair skin like a youthful Irishman. All the men are in fine trim and appear athletic.
Kay Rackauckas is the defense counsel for Landon Mirallegro. She is shown above leaving the Orange County Superior Court building on April 25th 2014. photography by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved.
The quartet was indicted by the Orange County District Attorney on October 29th 2013. At least twenty insurance carriers, third-party administrators, and self-insureds investigated the Anaheim-based Aspen group which operated under several business names (with various IRS identification numbers) such as: Aspen Medical Resources, National Medical Equipment, Elite Diagnostics, Regional Imaging Services, 3DR Diagnostics, Abrexis Orthocare, and Atlas Lien Services. The allegations from workers’ compensation claims departments include kick-backs to doctors and cash payments to medical office managers.
But the salient allegation in the Indictment is that Aspen flagrantly and repeatedly over-billed for a hot-cold water circulation pad with pump as two separate units. An example of how they billed is:
-
CPT: E0217 Water Circulation Heat Pad with Pump DME (Rental for 14 days at $910.00)
-
CPT: E0218 Water Circulation Cold Pad with Pump DME (Rental for 14 days at $980.00)
-
Total Rental for 14 days: $1,890.00
Orange County DA Investigator, Louis Martinez, researched the prices of these units and found they regularly cost between $295 and $500 as a retail price to be purchased outright. But, a defense attorney who wrote by email to adjustercom in October of 2013, stated:
“Today, I received bills from Aspen in the amount of $18,900 for several two week period rentals of what was supposedly a hot water circulating pump/pad for $980.00 for each two week period and a cold water circulating pump/pad at $910 for each two week period.
“Interestingly, when I looked up the purchase price for the unit as coded by Aspen, even with a special attachment for a shoulder injury (the kind of claim I am working on), the retail price of the machine is $224.95.”
Campau, Mirallegro, and Khorshad are out on bail of $1,500,000 each; Ryan McCracken is out of custody on a bail of $20,000.
Court was called to order and the second case called was the Aspen case. The judge began by saying:
The Honorable John D. Conley: I had concerns we wouldn’t have all the briefs. But it looks like we have all the briefs.
The defense is going to be filing a 995 Motion. According to Deputy District Attorney Shaddi Kamiabipour, who is prosecuting this case, 995 Motions are very common. A 995 is essentially a request for the judge to dismiss one or more counts of the Complaint or Indictment. In California, Penal Code 995 is a Motion to Dismiss the Information based upon lack of probable cause or sufficient evidence, a conflict of interest, or a procedural error.
Shaddi Kamiabipour, left, is prosecuting the OCDA's case against the Aspen Medical quartet. She is shown here talking to DA investigator, Louis Martinez, in front of the Orange County Superior Court building on March 14th 2014. photography by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved.
In the case that was dismissed through a successful 995 Motion last year in Orange County Superior Court--the case against Sim Hoffman, M.D., Thomas Heric, M.D., Beverly Mitchell and Louis Santillan--the defense attorney, Richard Moss’s argument prevailed that the prosecution committed “Johnson error” by suppressing admissible exculpatory evidence. Thus, in December of 2013, all 884 counts against Hoffman and his gang were thrown out. Thus, the DA’s office had to start all over again against Hoffman by refiling the case with only 159 counts, streamlining it, and doing a filing rather than going to a grand jury. Thus, a preliminary hearing will be coming up. The next court proceeding on that case will take place on July 18th, this coming Friday.
Sim Hoffman, M.D. and Thomas Heric, M.D. are the only defendants on the newly filed case. They are accused of creating phony sleep studies and evaluations based upon no medical science but created purely as a fabrication for billing the workers’ compensation claims departments.
The People’s Opposition to the Aspen 995 Motion to Dismiss will be due on August 8th 2014. Then the Response from the Defense to the People’s Opposition must be filed by August 18th 2014.
Henceforth, the next hearing will take place on August 29th.
Shaddi Kamiabipour, DDA, appeared in court in a lovely green print dress. She said as soon as she arrived, to the defense counsels, “The 29th? Is the 29th good for everyone?”
All the counsels then agreed to August 29th 2014 as the date for their next court appearances.
lonce@adjuster.com; Lonce LaMon, journalist: copyright adjustercom and Lonce LaMon; all rights reserved.
| 
__May11th2017.gif)
.gif)