Court Digest

Alabama
Doctor, pharmacist sentenced for health care fraud
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama doctor and a pharmacist have been sentenced in a multi-million dollar health care fraud scheme to bill insurance companies for medically unnecessary drugs, among other charges.

A federal judge sentenced Paul Roberts, a former Fultondale doctor, to six years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $2 million in fines and restitution, U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and federal agents announced in a joint statement Tuesday.

Roberts also pleaded guilty to a “conspiracy and scheme” to fraudulently bill insurers for office visits and up to $2.2 million worth of medically unnecessary drugs in exchange for kickbacks, prosecutors said.

Stanley Reeves, a pharmacist and owner of F&F Drugs in Demopolis, was sentenced to just over three years in prison for conspiring to fraudulently bill health insurance companies for $10.5 million worth of medically unnecessary drugs, some of which were prescribed by Roberts, according to the Justice Department.

He was ordered to pay $10.5 million in restitution.

Roberts also pleaded guilty to 12 counts of prescribing controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose, including allowing an X-ray technician to prescribe the drugs to patients, as well as prescribing controlled substances to women in an attempt to obtain sexual favors, prosecutors said.

The two agreed to give up their licenses.

Texas
Man sentenced to 5 years in prison for 2018 bombing
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a Beaumont man to five years in prison following his conviction for planting bombs in the Southeast Texas city two years ago.

Jonathan Matthew Torres, 42, pleaded guilty last year to possession of an unregistered destructive device and was later found guilty at trial of use of an explosive to cause property damage. Judge Thad Heartfield sentenced him Tuesday.

Torres was accused of leaving a bomb outside a Starbucks and another at a city church. The first device was found in April 2018 inside a mailbox and never exploded. The second went off at an Episcopal church the next month, causing damage  but not hurting anyone. Authorities arrested Torres, a military veteran, later that month.

In March 2018 two people were killed when Austin, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Beaumont, was terrorized for three weeks by a series of package bombs. The 23-year-old suspected in the Austin bombings blew himself up as authorities closed in.

After the first bomb was found in Beaumont, prosecutors said, Torres sent local police a series of cryptic postcards. One allegedly read, “DO YOU WANT BMT TO BECOME ANOTHER AUSTIN ...”

Illinois
Judge: Ex-school security guard to pay $3M in sex abuse case
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a former security guard at a suburban Chicago high school to pay $3 million in damages to the family of a former student who said in a lawsuit that he sexually abused her dozens of times.

The default judgment granted Tuesday by U.S. Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer against Michael Haywood of Evanston awards the student’s family $2 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, the Pioneer Press reported, citing court records.

A default judgment is issued when a defendant fails to appear in court or enter a plea. According to court documents, Haywood, 35, “failed to appear and answer or otherwise plead.”

The girl’s family filed a lawsuit in August 2019 alleging Haywood “groomed” the Evanston Township High School student in 2018 and 2019 when she was 17 and engaged in “unwanted and unauthorized sexual and other contact” with the teen more than 40 times, including several times at the school.

The family’s civil case against the high school and the city of Evanston is ongoing. The suit also alleges that the school failed to adequately protect girls from purported predators and didn’t fully inform parents of the allegations against Haywood after firing him in January 2019.

Haywood has not been criminally charged in the assaults described in the lawsuit, but he was charged in February 2019 with sexually assaulting a different student in November 2018 who is not involved in the civil suit.

Haywood has pleaded not guilty in that case and is currently on home electronic monitoring, according to court records.

At attorney representing Haywood in the criminal case declined to comment on the civil suit.

Andrew M. Stroth, the attorney representing the teen and her family, declined to comment on the probability of being able to collect $3 million from Haywood, but said he considers the judgment a positive development for the case against the district and city.

Molly Thompson, an attorney for Evanston Township High School District 202, emphasized that the default judgement was issued solely against Haywood and not the other defendants in the lawsuit.

“The Board of Education of Evanston Township High School District 202 and the other defendants, besides Haywood, filed motions to dismiss plaintiffs’ First Amended complaint, which are currently pending,” Thompson said in a statement.

Wisconsin
Former state senator faces federal charges
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former Wisconsin state senator and tourism secretary has been charged in federal court with fraud and with storing and disposing of hazardous electronic waste without a permit, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Madison announced Thursday.

Kevin Shibilski, who served in the state Senate from 1995 to 2002, was charged Wednesday. His attorney, Mark Belongia, said Shibilski is a victim of fraud, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

The indictment issued by a grand jury in Madison alleges Shibilski, 59, of Merrill, illegally stored and disposed of broken and crushed glass from cathode ray tubes at warehouses operated by 5R Processors Ltd. in Wisconsin and Tennessee, and that the material was hazardous because of lead toxicity.

The indictment also charges Shibilski with eight counts of wire fraud for taking in nearly $5.8 million from clients but failing to recycle more than 8.3 million pounds (3.8 million kilograms) of their crushed glass from cathode ray tubes containing lead, and instead stockpiled it at the 5R facilities.

In July, Shibilski sued his former business partners at 5R, claiming they used false books and records to lure investors, including Shibilski.

“We strongly disagree with the allegations in the indictment,” Belongia said Thursday. “Our civil case correctly lays out the whole story. Namely, our client is a victim of fraud and not the perpetrator.”

5R recycled electronic equipment, appliances and other items. It had facilities and warehouses in Ladysmith, Glen Flora, Catawba and West Bend, in Wisconsin, along with Morristown, Tennessee.

Shibilski is also charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by failing to pay and evasion of more than $850,000 in employment and income taxes for 5R Processors and its associated entities.

Each wire fraud charge carries up to 20 years in federal prison. The hazardous waste charge and the tax charge each carry up to five years.

Shibilski’s civil lawsuit alleges that his former partners started a competing company that stole 5R’s assets, including cash, equipment, confidential company data and customer lists.

Shibilski ran for lieutenant governor in 2002 but was defeated by fellow Democrat Barbara Lawton. Later that year, governor-elect Jim Doyle appointed Shibilski as state tourism secretary, but Shibilski stepped down in April 2003.

Pennsylvania
Democrats appeal Green Party case to state high court
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats on Thursday signaled their intent to appeal a lower court decision ordering election officials to put the Green Party’s candidate for president on the ballot in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

They filed an intent to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court, where the Democratic majority-panel will could decide the last remaining legal hangup before ballots can be mailed out to voters who applied for one.

The Democrats’ protest targets what they say are disqualifying irregularities in how the Green Party candidates for president and vice president filed affidavits that accompany paperwork to get them on the ballot.

The lower court judge, a Republican, dismissed arguments that the presidential nominee, Howie Hawkins, should be barred from the ballot, but agreed that the Green Party’s vice presidential nominee should be barred.

In 2016, Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 44,292 votes in Pennsylvania, helping him win the White House. The Green Party’s nominee that year, Jill Stein, drew slightly more votes than that, 49,941.

Democrats have already dropped their challenges to Green Party candidates for three statewide offices, attorney general, treasurer and auditor general.

Minnesota
Psychiatrists gets 5 years in prison for assaulting patient
HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) — A Twin Cities psychiatrist has been sentenced to spend five years behind bars for repeatedly sexually assaulting a patient he was treating.

Gavin Meany, 39, was sentenced Wednesday in Dakota County District Court where he had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of third-degree criminal sexual contact. Meany will be under court supervision for life.

The female victim told investigators last year that she had been abused for five years by Meany who she was seeing for past sexual trauma and an eating disorder.

She said the sexual contact first occurred in Meany’s office in St. Louis Park and later in his Burnsville office and at his Apple Valley home, the Star Tribune reported.

The St. Louis Park allegations have led to separate charges in Hennepin County. Meany has a Sept. 23 court date in that case.

The woman has filed a medical malpractice suit in Hennepin County alleging that Meany “preyed on her in a sexual manner” in 2017 and 2018.

Missouri
Former high school teacher sentenced to 6 years for child porn
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former southwestern Missouri high school teacher has been sentenced to six years in prison on a federal child porn charge.

Matthew McCroskey, 51, was sentenced Wednesday, the Springfield News-Leader reported. Prosecutors said McCroskey admitted to searching out and downloading child pornography from the internet. Investigators found at least 96 images and one video of child pornography on McCroskey’s computer.

Evidence was also presented at his sentencing that McCroskey set up a hidden camera and secretly recorded young women as they used the bathroom at his house.

McCroskey had worked at Logan-Rogersville schools starting in 2004, teaching English and sponsoring the yearbook. He was fired following his arrest in January 2019.

At his sentencing, a judge ordered McCroskey’s sentence credited for the two years he has already served in jail awaiting trial and sentencing. He also was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution ot one of the child pornography victims.

Ohio
Mom gets 25-year term for leaving her 2 dead babies in cars
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The mother of two infants whose remains were left in separate abandoned cars was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Jenna Cisneros had pleaded no contest last month to charges of involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice. Her husband is also charged in the investigation and his trial is scheduled to start next week.

Jenna Cisneros, 34, was found competent to stand trial, but her attorney has said she has suffered from mental illness from an early age and did not have a normal relationship with her husband.

When she handed down the sentence Wednesday, Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Linda Jennings noted Cisneros has provided logic-defying and conflicting accounts of how she gave birth and abandoned her children over a span of about 2½ years,

Cisneros and her husband, Jacob Cisneros, were arrested in February on charges accusing them of leaving the body of their infant son in a car in 2017. The boy was thought to be no more than 2 months old, according to authorities.

Investigators said that soon after the couple was taken into custody, police found the remains of a second infant, a girl, inside another abandoned car at an apartment complex where the couple once lived.