Landon Mirallegro And Jeffrey Campau, Owners Of Elite Diagnostics, Unable To Retain Counsel. Prosecution Has Stymied Their Rob Peter To Pay Paul Scheme Before A Defense With No Money Planning To File A Motion For Vindictive Prosecution.
By Lonce LaMon - August 7, 2016
Landon Mirallegro, in a fine, dark suit, sat in the end seat of the back row by the door to the court room. Jeffrey Campau, also in a dark suit of a subtle plaid, sat two rows in front of him in the middle seat. They weren’t talking to each other. They appeared to not even know one another.
Both are men in their early 40s whom the prosecutor, Shaddi Kamiabipour, described during court proceedings in Orange County Superior Court, room C-30, on July 29th as “young, good-looking, and articulate”. Landon Mirallegro is not very tall, slightly built, and with a small face that is lightly bronzed. He looks believably Italian. Jeffrey Campau is tall, very handsome, and striking in his presence.
But now, on Friday during the late morning on August 5th, together as the partners and owners of Regional Medical Services dba Elite Diagnostics in Anaheim, they sat apart appearing distraught and estranged. There was an air of immense depression emanating from them. Their spirits were not merely dampened, they were on ice.
Mirallegro and Campau are now faced with 73 new counts of workers’ compensation insurance billing fraud offenses related to Elite Diagnostics, filed between July 14th and 21st 2016, which are separate from the offenses they have faced over the hot-cold physical therapy machines as the owners of Aspen Medical Resources in partnership with Abraham Khorshad. Khorshad, a partner in Aspen, and Ryan McCracken, who was the collector for Aspen, are not named in this new complaint against Mirallegro and Campau.
Kay Anderle, Landon Mirallegro’s attorney, spoke first as she stood before Judge John Conley in a grey suit together with Paul Meyer, Jeff Campau’s attorney, who has now returned to court and who also wore a grey suit. Kay expressed that both defendants had to go back to the jail and get booked as there was something missing on the form. But they would get back there and get it done before August 19th, the deadline agreed upon with the court.
Kay Anderle, formerly Kay Rackauckas, defense attorney for Landon Mirallegro, leaves the Orange County Superior Courthouse in Santa Ana a little after Noon on August 5th 2016. She stated in court that she is preparing to file a motion against the District Attorney's office for vindictive prosecution and to have them recused. As to her recent name change, she said to this paparazza, "I've been divorced a long time." She is the former wife of Orange County District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas. Photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved.
On Friday, July 29th, Jeffrey Campau arrived to court with a warrant out for his arrest. As Campau stood before Judge Conley, the judge recalled the warrant.
Landon Mirallegro was arrested and handcuffed in front of his house on July 21st at 6:30 am, and was assisted by PARS (Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society) and given his freedom to appear out of custody before the court. The Honorable John Conley then granted both defendants OR (released on their own recognizance), but ordered them to get formally booked with the jail.
Judge Conley clearly favored the defense during proceedings on July 29th. He asked the prosecution why she took out warrants rather than have the defendants surrender. Conley also expressed that he was feeling uncomfortable with the case right from the get-go.
Now on August 5th, Kay Anderle told Judge Conley she hoped his court would keep this new case. She clearly saw his favor and went with that energy. She is planning to file a motion to get this new case dismissed based on vindictive prosecution, she told the court. Shaddi Kamiabipour expressed she had no problem with the current court keeping the case.
But neither Kay Anderle nor Paul Meyer has been retained as counsel. They both announced themselves as making special appearances for their respective clients. Their statuses as having not been retained by their clients make their plans to defend them precarious.
Most likely Campau and Mirallegro are wiped out financially and can’t retain counsel. All of their assets are frozen, to the tune of eight million dollars. Now, with the new case against Elite Diagnostics, Kay Anderle told the court the defendants can’t collect.
Kay Anderle, Mirallegro Defense Counsel: We’ve been doing basically back-flips with the D.A. and the insurance companies. We’ve been showing good faith with the hot-cold machines. But the D.A. has upped the ante. She has essentially shut it down (Elite Diagnostics). She hasn’t formally shut it down, but the word is out. They all talk (meaning the claims professionals). Now we’re not going to be able to collect.
Shaddi Kamiabipour’s view is that Elite Diagnostics was robbing Peter to pay Paul, in effect. Elite was collecting on liens from improperly generated MRI billings. Thus, they were collecting from one fraud scheme in order to pay the restitution to the victims on another fraud scheme. The other fraud scheme is the hot-cold therapy machine overbillings that were generated and paid in excess to Aspen Medical Resources.
Regional Medical Center, dba Elite Diagnostics, according to the prosecution, is a Limited Liability Corporation. Such a corporation is not legally permitted to bill for professional medical services. A company in order to legally bill has to be a medical professional corporation.
What Elite Diagnostics has been doing is use an MRI machine to take MRIs of patients. They have no licensed medical doctors on their premises or on staff. They have non-licensed employees take the MRI images and then send them to outside contractor radiologists, who read the images. Those vendor radiologists then write reports describing the images.
Elite Diagnostics, according to the complaint, used the reports to validate the bills and then represented them as coming from Elite Diagnostics. Elite misidentified itself by name on billing forms to hide its status as a Limited Liability Corporation.
Deputy District Attorney Shaddi Kamiabipour, shown here on an oppressively hot day on July 29th 2016 leaving the courthouse, kept her cool in the court room while confronted by defense counsels ready to file a motion accusing her of vindictive prosecution. She filed recent charges against Landon Mirallegro and Jeffrey Campau, the owners of Elite Diagnostics, whom she accuses of illegally billing workers' compensation payers in excess of nine million dollars for physicians who merely interpreted images as outside contractors. photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved
DDA Shaddi Kamiabipour: (Referring to Aspen) I’ve given numbers to counsels and they just disagree with it. I honestly don’t know what to do at this point.
Shaddi explained to the court that there have been overwhelming difficulties with interpreting the numbers on the Aspen restitution issues together with a PDF file from the defense that she couldn’t pull information out of because it was in the form of a PDF. Also, many of the victim insurance carriers, TPAs, and self-insureds have not responded. Mostly, it has been the larger insurance carriers from which she has not been able to get responses. Shaddi expressed she can’t control third party victims. Henceforth, the insurance company victims need to respond.
DDA Shaddi Kamiabipour: We provided multiple numbers that counsel disagreed with. I don’t know what they’re thinking. They just disagreed with it.
The defense agreed to resubmit the numbers and Kay Anderle’s expression inferred responsibility from the defendants.
Kay Anderle, Mirallegro Defense Counsel: In an effort to have the insurance company victims made whole, we had made offers.
The discussion shifted back to the new case. A date to begin the Preliminary Hearing plus time waivers, were discussed.
Judge John Conley: I have some mixed feelings about doing the Prelim. I know too much. I know a lot. Typically, the judge should know nothing. Have a clean slate. What’s your time estimate?
Paul Meyer, Campau Defense Counsel: First, we have to see if we can be retained. No, we don’t have a sense of timing.
Kay Anderle, Mirallegro Defense Counsel: I have a lot of questions whether the case is founded in the law.
The Elite Diagnostics case, plus the Aspen Medical Resources case, will both be heard back in Judge John Conley’s court room, C-30, on Friday, August 19th 2016.
lonce@adjustercom.com; Lonce LaMon, journalist, all rights reserved.
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