Peter Nelson Now Wants To Sever As Defendant In Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah Case. Judge Repeats The Case Is As Broad As A Glacier Slipping Down A Mountain.
By Lonce LaMon - December 5, 2016
Before the judge even took to the bench on Friday morning, December 2nd 2016, in Department 109 of Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, the irrepressible alpha wolf of the defense, Benjamin Gluck, was overheard saying, “There’s going to be nothing left to fight.”
Gluck wasn’t just effusing bravado. Since the beginning of two indictments filed in 2015 and unsealed in September of 2015 to prosecute this case, the total amount of counts of the two indictments combined has gone from a beginning number of 132 down to 34. That’s 98 counts that have been dismissed by successful 995 Motions to Set-Aside filed by various members of the defense while spearheaded by Benjamin Gluck.
Gluck is the retained attorney of record for Dr. Uwaydah’s right-hand-man, Paul Turley. Turley is still in custody along with Peter Nelson, Uwaydah’s physician assistant; Jeffrey Stevens, an owner of a shell company for MRI imaging; and Tony Folgar, an alleged capper.
Dr. Munir Uwaydah is still on the lam, presumably in Lebanon. Another defendant, Wendee Luke, is also on the lam presumably somewhere in Europe. The rest of the defendants are out of custody on bond with the exception of Marisa Schermbeck-Nelson, whom the prosecution described as Uwaydah’s one time CEO, against whom all of the counts have been dismissed. Marisa remains alone. Her husband is Peter Nelson, and as aforementioned, he remains in custody.
What counts remain are two counts of Conspiracy To Commit A Crime, one in each of the two indictments, and 32 counts of Insurance Fraud in the larger indictment containing eleven defendants. All counts of Aggravated Mayhem, Unlawful Patient Referral, Money Laundering, the Revenue and Tax Counts, have been dismissed. The basic, in-a-nutshell, abridged reasons: failure by the prosecution to lay down a proper foundation of evidence before the Grand Jury according to the Evidence Code for the Unlawful Patient Referrals, Money Laundering, and Revenue and Tax Counts. As for the Aggravated Mayhem counts, it was just a bad legal theory. One thing Judge Kathleen Kennedy said to the prosecution during the hearings on the Aggravated Mayhem counts was, “You can’t just take a butterfly net” and stick it out there and grab a fly-by legal theory.
Dr. Munir Uwaydah circa 2008 all rights reserved
The prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney Dayan Mathai, must now hang on with all they’ve got to their remaining 34 counts. They absolutely cannot afford to give Gluck and his gang any more successes. Judge Kathleen Kennedy has railed against the prosecution, calling them “sloppy, incompetent”. This evoked a reaction from Deputy District Attorney Catherine Chon, and prompted her to express in open court on one occasion last Summer to Judge Kathleen, “You don’t have to personally insult us.” And Ms. Chon is right.
Lead prosecutor, Dayan Mathai, shown here in front of the courthouse on December 2nd 2016, must hang on to the remaining 34 counts in the two indictments in order to prevail in this case. He's lost 98 counts since this Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah case began in September 2015. photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved
But Judge Kathleen is clearly outraged by so many actions of the defendants, which she has called “horrible” that any careful observer can see she is pining for justice to be served and for the prosecution to do it. She has chewed out the prosecution while unable to hide she is on their side. She has spoken “this is a very important case” and “it’s a shame the prosecution couldn’t get their act together” at separate times.
Even though judges are committed to objectively applying the facts of the evidence to the law, judges are humans with feelings and emotions. Judge Kathleen has ruled correctly, but with colossal disappointment in the prosecution. This writer is in no way fooled into believing that Judge Kathleen has made so many rulings in favor of the defense because she feels the defendants are emanating with innocence. She is forced to her rulings by the mandates of the law.
Last Friday, Benjamin Gluck started out when court came to session with his continuing harangue about the violations of the prosecution with attorney-client privilege. It’s his present pet project.
Benjamin Gluck, left, with his constant court partner, Nicole Van Dyk, cross North Broadway in downtown Los Angeles on November 1st 2016. Gluck has spearheaded the defense in the Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah case into getting 98 counts dismissed in less than fifteen months. photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved
“Location 13” was a storage unit opened up to law enforcement and prosecutors by the prominent cooperator, Marisa Schermbeck-Nelson, that was teeming with 125 boxes loaded with documents from Dr. Uwaydah’s Frontline Medical practice containing some attorney-client privileged communications. Benjamin Gluck is outraged that the prosecution just opened up all the materials, read them, and distributed them about without ever having any designated protector go through and sort out attorney-client protected information from the get-go. Now Benjamin has won a court order demanding upon the prosecution that the protected materials be sorted out and removed from their evidence inventory and given to him.
Benjamin Gluck: Good news! There was a motion on calendar but Ms. Nishita (one of the deputy district attorneys) handed me the documents we were looking for. Resolved.
But Benjamin went on to emphasize that there is much more to come with the privilege invasion issue. He indicated that he and the prosecution have decided on January 6th 2017 as a motion date. But they may be agreeing without involving the court, however if they can’t agree they will need court time.
Ronnie Case, shown here inside the parking structure on Temple Street in downtown L.A. on December 2nd 2016, is still striving to get severed from the pack of defendants in the Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah case so he can get immediately to trial. He lived with Kelly Soo Park leading up to the day she was arrested and consequently tried for the murder of aspiring actress and model Juliana Redding. Kelly Soo Park was found not-guilty by a Los Angeles jury on June 4th 2013. photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved.
The judge threw out that she has three trials coming up. She’s going to be setting things that need significant time on Fridays. But Benjamin said that in the unlikely event that he can’t come to terms with the prosecution, he’ll need the court time.
Benjamin Gluck: There are significant things that people did and said. There could be 15 to 20 witnesses.
Judge Kathleen Kennedy: That’s more than a day…
So, Judge Kathleen expressed that if the hearing is needed, maybe at the end of the first trial and before she starts the second one that hearing could be slipped in.
The time came for time waivers and when Peter Nelson was called, his attorney, Lou Shapiro, in his fine grey suit, red tie, and Gentlemen’s Quarterly model looks, perked up and pranced out of the jury pool area and into the bench area as he spoke. He wants to sever his client and join Ronnie Case as a severed defendant apart from the pack and go immediately to trial.
Lou Shapiro is shown here in front of Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown L.A. on April 11, 2016. He is now trying to get his client, Peter Nelson, severed from the pack of defendants so he can get him immediately to trial. He has joined the request for severance with defense counsels for Ronnie Wayne Case. photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved
Judge Kathleen Kennedy: Mr. Case hasn’t been severed.
Lou Shapiro: Well, we’d like to join that request.
Judge Kathleen expressed that she is not going to try all 13 defendants all at one time, so she wants the defense counsels to talk to one another. She’s not going to sever off Ronnie Case all by himself, as his defense attorney, James Spertus, has been fighting to have happen for months now. She implicitly implies she wants groups, of possibly three or four.
Well, now James Spertus for Ronnie Case has Lou Shapiro for Peter Nelson willing to join him. It’s a start. Spertus did not appear in court on Friday but instead an associate from his firm, Sam Josephs, stood in for him.
Judge Kathleen Kennedy: This case is so broad it’s just like a glacier coming down a mountain.
Attorney Sam Josephs, left, stood in for James Spertus on Friday, December 2nd 2016, in representing defendant Ronnie Case. Josephs is shown here walking to his car with defense attorney for Jeff Stevens, Bill Fleming, on December 2nd 2016. photo by Lonce LaMon, all rights reserved
Judge Kathleen told Sam Josephs and Lou Shapiro she was going to find good cause to put them over to January 6th 2017 if they didn’t consent. So, they consented and waived time.
As an aside, Lou Shapiro filed a Writ with the Court of Appeals challenging Judge Kathleen’s October 7th 2016 ruling against Peter Nelson’s 995 Motion to Dismiss. Lou Shapiro wrote that motion as a mirror image of Marisa Schermbeck-Nelson’s 995 Motion, which brilliantly succeeded. The judge said on October 7th 2016 that Peter Nelson was in “very different shoes” from his wife and that “the motion is not well taken”.
This case of the People vs Criminal Organization Munir Uwaydah is back in court in Department 109 on January 6th 2017.
lonce@adjustercom.com
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