North Carolina
Doctor indicted in medical equipment scheme
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina doctor has been indicted in connection with a scheme that defrauded federal programs of more than $11 million, a U.S. attorney said.
Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a news release that Sudipta Mazumder, 46, of Charlotte, is charged with six counts of making false statements relating to health care matters and a single count of health care fraud.
The indictment says that during 2019 and 2020, Mazumder was a doctor in Charlotte and worked as an independent contractor for a Delaware-based telemedicine company. During that time, Mazumder allegedly signed fraudulent orders for knee braces, leading to the filing of thousands of fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare and TRICARE.
According to the indictment, Mazumder falsely stated in those orders that she performed medical examinations of Medicare and TRICARE patients and falsely certified that the braces were medically necessary. Mazumder never examined the Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries, and had little to no interaction with them, the indictment said.
Instead, prosecutors said, Mazumder received from the telemedicine company unsigned orders for orthopedic braces, which she signed and returned to the telemedicine company in exchange for $20 for each purported assessment that she performed.
Georgia
Officials: Man sentenced to die kills self in prison
JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man who was recently sentenced to death in the killings of two corrections officers during an escape attempt five years ago has died in prison of an apparent suicide, corrections officials said.
Prison guards found Ricky Dubose unresponsive in his cell at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson around 4:45 p.m. Sunday, according to a Department of Corrections news release. The guards called for medical help and began rendering aid. The coroner at the prison declared Dubose dead at 5:56 p.m.
Dubose, 29, was sentenced to death June 16 after he was convicted of murder in the June 2017 shooting deaths of Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue.
Dubose and Donnie Rowe were being transported between prisons along with other inmates when they killed the two guards and escaped from the bus in Putnam County, southeast of Atlanta, on June 13, 2017. They were arrested days later in Tennessee.
Dubose was accused of firing the gun that killed the officers after he and Rowe slipped out of handcuffs and burst through an unlocked gate at the front of the bus. Prosecutors say Dubose grabbed one of the officers’ weapons and shot Monica, the guard, and then Billue, the driver, both in the head. Security cameras on the bus recorded the violent escape and roughly 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings.
Rowe was convicted of murder in September. A judge sentenced him to serve life in prison without parole after jurors couldn’t agree whether he should be sentenced to death.
The Department of Corrections is working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate Dubose’s death, which is standard procedure.
North Carolina
Woman gets nearly 6 years for supplying guns to gang
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina woman has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for trying to buy firearms on behalf of gang members who she helped sell drugs, according to a federal prosecutor.
U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley Jr. said in a news release that Vernisha Suggs, 35, of Rocky Mount, who pleaded guilty to multiple charges in February, was sentenced Thursday to 71 months in prison.
Court documents and other information showed Suggs engaged in a conspiracy from 2018 through 2020 to purchase numerous firearms on behalf of Bloods gang members from federally licensed firearms dealers in Rocky Mount. Though she filled out paperwork saying she was buying the guns for herself, she gave the guns to local Bloods gang members.
Suggs also helped Bloods gang members distribute fentanyl and heroin throughout Nash and Edgecombe counties, prosecutors said. Her home was used as a meeting spot for out-of-state drug suppliers to bring fentanyl and heroin mixtures. She also provided a rental vehicle used in an attempt to transport a mixture of fentanyl and heroin from New York back to the Rocky Mount area, a news release said.
Texas
Man gets life in prison after fatally shooting men in drug deal
HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston man has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting four men, including three who were killed, in the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, according to prosecutors.
A jury in Harris County last week found Joshua Kelsey, 37, guilty of three counts of murder before sentencing him.
Prosecutors say Kelsey shot two men — one fatally — after buying heroin at a home in May 2020. A witness testified that Kelsey was angry at one of the men, Louis Hodges, for an incident the day before involving a small bag of heroin.
After stealing a car belonging to one of the men, Kelsey drove to the home of a friend, Michael Miller, and fatally shot him, police said.
Authorities said Kelsey blamed Miller for getting rid of a recreational vehicle that he had stored at Miller’s home. Investigators said Kelsey believed the loss of the RV led to him becoming homeless.
Kelsey then to drove to the home of an acquaintance, Juan Garcia, and fatally shot him. It was unclear why Kelsey held a grudge against Garcia, according to authorities.
Kelsey was later arrested after a 20-mile police chase.
California
Man caught with 24 kilograms of fentanyl in his car
FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) — A suspected Southern California drug dealer was caught with 24 kilos of fentanyl in his car and home, along with $250,000 worth of fentanyl pills, prosecutors said.
The 60-year-old suspect was arrested following a traffic stop on Wednesday during which California Highway Patrol officers found 4 kilos of fentanyl in his vehicle, according to a statement the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
A subsequent search of his home led to the discovery of more fentanyl, plus methamphetamine, the statement said.
The Fullerton resident pleaded not guilty on Friday to multiple felony counts of drug possession and sale or transport, the Orange County Register reported.
If convicted, he faces more than 6 years at the Orange County jail.
Local law enforcement officials have warned of rapid growth in the number of deaths related to fentanyl, which jumped from 36 in 2016 to 636 in 2021, the Register reported.
Tennessee
Man charged with killing tenant in machete attack
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee rooming house manager has been charged with killing a tenant with a machete during an argument over parking, state prosecutors said.
Leaford Anderson, 53, has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Edward Lee Brooks, the Shelby County district attorney’s office said in a news release Thursday.
Anderson, the manager of a south Memphis rooming house, and Brooks, 52, got into an argument on Sept. 17 over the new tenant parking on the grass in front of the home, investigators said.
The argument erupted again several hours later, and it became physical, authorities said. Anderson pulled a machete and struck Brooks in the head, face, forearms and left calf. Brooks died at the home.
Anderson told police he caused Brooks’ injuries as he was defending himself during the altercation, a police affidavit said.
A lawyer listed for Anderson in online court records did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Anderson’s behalf.
Indiana
Man gets 180 years for killing woman, 2 teens 24 years ago
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A judge sentenced a Lake County man to 180 years in prison Friday for killing a woman and two teenage boys found bludgeoned to death in 1998 in a house in northwest Indiana.
James H. Higgason III, 52, of Whiting, was sentenced to three terms of 60 years each, to be served consecutively.
He was found guilty May 27 of murder and murder during the commission of a robbery. He has said he will appeal.
Prosecutors alleged Higgason and David Copley, 47, beat Elva Tamez, 36, Jerod Hodge, 18, of Chicago; and Timothy Ross, 16, of Calumet City, Illinois, to death on Jan. 18, 1998, at the woman’s Hammond home with pieces of wood or metal pipes, court records stated. They were trying to get drugs and cash, prosecutors said.
The victims had their skulls bashed in a drug-fueled “frenzy,” Deputy Lake County Prosecuting Attorney Jovanni Miramontes has said.
Defense lawyers Mark Gruenhagen and Matthew Fech said the evidence against Higgason was thin and Copley wasn’t credible because he reached a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.
Copley pleaded guilty to Hodge’s murder last year and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. In exchange for his testimony, prosecutors dropped two other murder charges.
Massachusetts
Lawyer charged with trying to bribe cop in marijuana case
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts lawyer has pleaded not guilty to federal charges he tried to bribe the Medford police chief to get help in opening a recreational marijuana dispensary on behalf of a client.
Court records say that Somerville attorney Sean O’Donovan, 54, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday to three counts stemming from his efforts to win an agreement that would allow the client to open a marijuana dispensary in Medford. He was released.
The client was unaware of O’Donovan’s efforts, the Justice Department said in a Friday news release announcing the charges.
“Mr. O’Donovan did not bribe a public official, he did not discuss bribing a public official, and that the charges against him constitute an unprecedented extension of federal criminal law that we intend to vigorously challenge in the courtroom,” O’Donovan’s attorney Martin Weinberg said in a Saturday email.
Prosecutors say that in February 2021, O’Donovan approached a “close relative” of the Medford police chief and offered to pay $25,000 to speak with the chief about the client’s anticipated application to open a marijuana business in Medford. The chief immediately alerted federal authorities.
Prosecutors say that over the next few months O’Donovan met with the relative, described in court papers as Individual 1, to discuss the plan.
“The only problem for Mr. O’Donovan is the FBI was listening in on every single one of those meetings he had with Individual One,” First Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Levy told reporters on Friday.
