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| | Michael Drobot The Younger Pleads Guilty To Long Beach Hospital Conspiracy And Kick-Back Scheme. Tom Calderon Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering.
By Lonce LaMon - June 6, 2016
It’s been quite a long weekend for plea deals and verdicts for Southern California.
The son of Michael D. Drobot, who is Michael R. Drobot, a 44 year-old who lives in Newport Beach, pleaded guilty last Friday, June 3rd 2016 to charges of conspiracy and paying kickbacks in a scheme to perform unnecessary spinal surgeries on a substantial number of workers’ compensation patients. These surgeries were performed at Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, owned by Michael R. Drobot’s father up until 2013. The elder Michael Drobot, aged 69, pleaded guilty to similar charges in February 2014.
The federal government also revealed Friday that Michael E. Barri of San Clemente, who is a chiropractor, and Linda Martin, of Clovis, a former Pacific Hospital marketer, pleaded guilty from the same case. Michael Barri was also a defendant in the Landmark Medical case in Orange County Superior Court which was almost completely thrown out on a successful 995 motion led by Benjamin Gluck, finally decided on an appeal this past March. Linda Martin in her position lured medical professionals and others into the kickback scheme.
Michael Barri is scheduled to be sentenced in January of 2017, Linda Martin on August 19th 2016, and Michael R. Drobot on November 18th 2016.
Today, Monday June 6th 2016, former assemblyman Tom Calderon pleaded guilty to one felony count of money laundering in an agreement in which federal prosecutors offered to seek a prison sentence of no more than 12 months. The six other money laundering charges against Tom Calderon were dropped.
Tom is the brother of Ron Calderon, a former California state senator, who was indicted also for accepting bribes and money laundering. He allegedly accepted a nearly one hundred thousand dollar bribe from Michael Drobot the senior, in exchange for influencing workers’ compensation legislation to keep Drobot’s prized “pass through” loophole for use of exorbitant spinal implant prices going.
In another case, prosecutors said an undercover FBI agent posed as a film executive and approached Ron Calderon about altering the state’s film tax credit. Ron then accepted thousands of dollars in payments to his daughter. He was then suspended with pay before terming out of the Legislature.
In the filing today, Tom Calderon agreed he allowed a $30,000 bribe to be passed through Calderon Group, Inc., his consulting company, which was a payment for Ron Calderon’s support in lowering the California film tax credit threshold from $1 million to $750,000. He also agreed to the accusation that he wrote a $9,000 check from the Calderon Group’s bank account to Ron Calderon’s daughter.
According to the Sacramento Bee, a Sacramento defense attorney, Donald Heller, said Tom Calderon’s lawyer “did an excellent job in negotiating this plea agreement.” However, he did not want to speculate on whether Ron Calderon would also be accepting a plea agreement. Ron has pleaded not guilty and his trial--which has delayed for two years--is now scheduled to begin in July. However, Donald Heller added,“it appears that he (Tom) would be throwing his brother under the bus unless there’s something else coming down the road.”
This afternoon, a Los Angeles jury for the penalty trial of Lonnie Franklin, Jr., aka, the Grim Sleeper, gave Franklin the death penalty for the deaths of all ten of the victims named in the case. Testimony was presented in the penalty trial about five more likely victims. Investigators believe Franklin may have murdered from the 1980s until 2007 more than 25 women. They believe he did not sleep at all.
Quite an extended weekend for the greater Los Angeles area.
lonce@adjustercom.com
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