Kareem Ahmed Arraignment A Crowd Scene In Orange County Superior Court. Nearly 12 doctors now stand to lose their licenses.
By Lonce LaMon - August 29, 2014
In stepping out of the elevator just before 9 am, one was confronted by the throng of people standing in front of court room C-45 in the Orange County Superior Courthouse. This was just last Friday, August 22nd 2014, and Kareem Ahmed stood out like a neon sign as totally recognizable from all his pictures with Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.
There Obama’s million dollar donor for his 2012 reelection campaign was about to step into his court proceedings along with his 14 other defendant-consorts. This central figure in this 100 million dollar compound pain killer cream scam had cost just that to the California workers’ compensation system together with the loss of claimant Priscilla Lujan’s approximately five-month-old infant.
There Ahmed was right in the center of the throng, clad in a dark suit and a white shirt open at the collar with no tie. He stood with a young man with a close cropped mustache and beard who looked like a younger version of himself whom one could guess might be his son.
Within this dull, dense mirage of blue and black suits of professional ladies and gentleman, Deputy District Attorney Shaddi Kamiabipour stepped through the crowd looking stunning in a vibrantly colorful orange and green dress with splotches of green and purple. The vividness of color was a feel-good antidepressant. The doors of the court room opened and then all the players entered in like a gaggle of geese.
Fifteen defendants carried with them their artillery of lawyers and auxiliary cavalry. Shaddi Kamiabipour stood out like the peacock as the only color in the room along with her almost maroon hair. Debbie Jackson accompanied Shaddi as an assistant deputy district attorney.
The Honorable Thomas Goethals took to the bench. Kareem Ahmed sat in the back of the court room in a seat flush against the wall. He dabbed at his nose with an elegant paper dinner napkin.
Here is Kareem Ahmed in an undated photo with Michelle Obama. It seems he enjoys not wearing a tie even when being photographed with the First Lady.
All the defendants stepped to the front towards the bench as the judge did a roll-call. Evette Charbonnet, Bruce Curnick, David Evans, Arselan Pourteymour, Randy Rosen, Robert Villapania, Kareem Ahmed… and the names continued.
Judge Thomas Goethals announced that the Grand Jury transcripts have been released. Someone hasn’t received the exhibits. 250 exhibit transcripts have been released. Shaddi then talked to Judge Goethals about the search warrants.
“I certainly expect 995s,” Goethals soon stated.
A 995 Motion in California is a motion to strike a count or counts in a complaint or an indictment based upon a lack of sufficient evidence or conflict-of-interest or other disqualifying argument. “You have three weeks now,” Goethals continued. “On September 12th, I’m going to start squeezing you a bit to get those Motions.”
This arraignment was continued until September 12th, and the long roll call also took place to get every defendant’s agreement to the waiver of time until that date. Judge Goethals said he was undecided if he was going to stagger the Motions (understanding he meant the 995 Motions) as he knew everyone was going to want to talk about their own 995. He wanted to discuss the possibility of staggering the 995s in a Thursday-Friday schedule.
“If we don’t do it like that, I’ll be dead before we get through all the motions.”
Then Goethals brought up the issue of the suspensions of professional licenses. He didn’t call out names, but he said he would be dealing with the suspension of licenses.
“Now, if you do not have additional matters to discuss, you are excused.”
So nearly a dozen doctors who received approximately 25 million dollars collectively in kick-backs from Kareem Ahmed, now stand to lose their medical licenses.
Thus, as was previously mentioned, this arraignment will be continued on September 12th 2014.
Journalist Lonce LaMon, lonce@adjuster.com; copyright adjustercom and Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved.
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