Landmark Medical Case Now Awaits Response From California Supreme Court
By Lonce LaMon - March 30, 2015
The defense in the Landmark Medical case in Orange County Superior Court is contesting the denial of their demurrers by Judge Thomas Goethals. These demurrers were denied by the court during proceedings on January 16th 2015.
Now this issue of the demurrers, and only this issue, has been sent as a petition to the California Supreme Court. Other motions are still pending to be heard in Judge Goethals court room, number C-45, at 700 W. Civic Center Drive in Santa Ana, California, continuing on May 1st 2015.
The defense is being led by Benjamin Gluck, who is counsel for the CEO of Landmark Medical, Kareem Ahmed. Gluck is arguing long-windedly in open court on form issues, insisting at one point that it needs to be much more clear what exactly the prosecution is charging in several of the counts. He objected to 20 victims to one count, therefore the prosecution broke it up in the first amended complaint.
Now the defense is objecting to 50 counts after they rejected the first case, which was amended. The amending of the indictment for the second time has been stayed now by the California Supreme Court.
Benjamin Gluck, left side profile, leads the defense in this court room photograph from September 12th 2014. Copyright Lonce LaMon, photographer, all rights reserved.
In the January 16th 2015 court proceedings, Judge Goethals told the defense they need to focus on the content of the case and not get hung up on the form. So, the demurrers are really about their objections to the form of the pleading and not the fact of whether the prosecution can’t prove it.
A demurrer is a response which acknowledges that even though the facts in a case are true, there is no legal basis for a lawsuit.
The prosecution will now tell the California Supreme Court why they believe the court should not hear the case. The prosecution is drafting a letter that explains their position that a review should not be granted. Their deadline for filing their response is the 13th of April 2015.
The Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, already Summararily Denied the Writ the defense filed in February 2015. Thus, as a consequence of this denial, the defense turned to the California Supreme Court.
However, the California Supreme Court has not yet officially accepted it. What they’ve responded is that they are willing to consider it, but want to hear from both sides as to why they should or should not take it.
There are 15 defendants in the Landmark Medical case in Orange County. Here is a court room photograph of many of the defendants with counsels standing up while being addressed by the judge. Copyright Lonce LaMon, photographer, all rights reserved.
Landmark Medical was originally indicted with the Orange County District Attorney’s first indictment of June 17th 2014.The case is about 200 million dollars in alleged workers’ compensation insurance fraud which involves the illegal and inappropriate manufacturing of compounded medications distributed to workers’ compensation patients. It also involves 25 million dollars in bribes allegedly paid by Kareem Ahmed to various physicians. There are 15 defendants in this case.
This Landmark Medical case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Shaddi Kamiabipour.
copyright adjustercom and Lonce LaMon; all rights reserved; no part of this article can be republished without express permission of the publisher: adjustercom.
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