Trudy Maurer, Former CEO of Implantium, Repays All Claims Payers Even Before Her Formal Sentencing Yesterday Afternoon In San Diego Superior Court
By Lonce LaMon - February 19, 2016
Trudy Maurer sat on a bench in a hallway perpendicular to the corridor of court room 30 in the San Diego Superior Courthouse yesterday afternoon. She sat with her attorney, Robb Atkins. Her mother, who had accompanied her to a hearing last December, appearing to be in her nineties and in a wheelchair, was not with her this time. This afternoon was her sentencing on the wake of her guilty plea agreement.
Dressed in a black suit, she looked attractive as a mature woman with her honey colored blonde hair softly curled and falling below her shoulders. The sign on the court room door stated the public was not being let in yet. Instructions were to please wait until the bailiff calls.
Benjamin Gluck, who is defense counsel to Trudy Maurer’s former medical director, Tigran Shahsuvaryan, was already inside of courtroom 30. He then stepped out of the courtroom as he talked on the phone while the public was still not invited to enter.
But it wasn’t long before the bailiff invited our faction into the courtroom with instructions to sit on the right side. This writer sat in the right third row in the end seats with SIU Supervisor from State Compensation Insurance Fund, Lane Spencer, clad in a fine dark suit.
Judge Eugenia Eyherabide, slender and beautiful with long dark brown flowing hair, heard a few cases involving credit card fraud and drug addiction before calling the Implantium case with codefendants Trudy Maurer and Tigran Shahsuvaryan. Maurer and Shahsuvaryan stepped forward with their attorneys along with Deputy District Attorney Pedro Bernal.
The judge addressed Trudy Maurer first. She was to accept 3 years of felony probation. Her 25 hours of community service have already been completed.
Judge Eyherabide: Do you accept probation on these terms?
Trudy Maurer: Yes.
DDA Pedro Bernal stated that Maurer had satisfied all the payments. Her restitution amount of $84,894.00 has been paid in full.
She has written checks to five companies:
Zenith Insurance Company: $10,700.00
City of San Diego: $40,167.00
California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA): $9,686.00
State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF): $13,322.00
Exchanging: $11,019.00.
But Tigran Shahsuvaryan was a different story. He stood before the court room in a dark pin striped jacket and blue jeans. He had not yet performed his community service like Trudy Maurer. Gluck asked for six months. The judge agreed and it was decided he would return on August 13th.
Judge Eyherabide: It’s still a criminal case.
Benjamin Gluck: Can you move it back to July?
Judge Eyherabide: Anything else?
Tigran Shahsuvaryan didn’t have the money to pay the restitution either. He has to pay the same amounts to the same parties as Trudy Maurer. It was discussed that he was going to have to make payments. DDA Pedro Bernal stated he would have to pay at least $1,000 a month. But to pay $84,894 by the end of 2017, which was also mentioned, wouldn’t happen with payments of only $1,000 a month.
There’s something not quite fully understandable here. The judge was also very soft spoken and it was hard to hear what she was saying in this court room.
The judge then asked if he accepted probation on these terms and conditions, and Shahsuvaryan said yes. The sentencing ended and all the participants left the court room.
This writer approached Trudy Maurer just outside the court room door and asked her what her future plans were, if she was going to stay in the spinal implant business, and how she feels about her plea agreement. She put her hand up and dramatically asked not to be asked anything. Then she turned on her heel. I stopped talking and merely waited for Lane Spencer. But as I waited, Trudy Maurer called out to her attorney, Robb Atkins, “She’s right behind you”. I felt she was acting like I was carrying a weapon.
I then told Trudy that I respected her right to request not to be asked any questions and that I would ask nothing further.
Trudy Maurer repaid all of the five entities she agreed in her plea agreement to repay before the date of her sentencing. She pled guilty to one count out of 24 counts and got the other 23 counts dismissed. But the judge’s words, “It’s still a felony criminal case,” clearly weighs heavily upon her as she does not like attention brought to this fact through journalism.
Tigran Shahsuvaryan hasn’t done as well. However his lawyer, Benjamin Gluck, wrote to this writer: “This San Diego case was just an ‘echo’ of the case settled years ago in Santa Clara. It just involves a different set of claims. My client has complied with his obligations and seeks to move on with his life. This agreement allows him to do so.”
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