DETROIT (AP) - A Detroit-area doctor sentenced to 45 years in prison for putting hundreds of cancer patients through needless treatments should not be allowed to withdraw his 2014 guilty plea, a judge said last Friday.
Farid Fata insists he got bad advice from his lawyer and was assured he'd get a shorter sentence if he pleaded guilty to fraud and cooperated with the government. But prosecutors didn't seek his cooperation, and he didn't get a break.
Fata's lawyer denied telling him that he could get a 20-year prison sentence.
"Fata, knowing his receipt of any cooperation credit was uncertain, pleaded guilty for many reasons, including: the evidence against him was overwhelming; he knew he would receive a life sentence if convicted at trial; he wanted to save his patients from having to testify at trial and from enduring a lengthy and 'brutal' trial," U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand said.
Fata was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Borman in 2015. Borman had assigned Fata's request to Grand for a report and recommendation.
Published: Tue, Feb 11, 2020
