As a top Federal lawyer, I am going to break down my most recent Medicare not guilty jury verdict focusing first on pre-trial. On January 19, 2023, after a two-week trial, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on each and every Count brought against my client, a former Vice President of Finance and Compliance with a Midwest-based durable medical equipment company. The case was tried to verdict in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). One of the challenges in defending any federal Medicare criminal prosecution is the sheer volume of the discovery materials produced by the Government. This case was no exception. That discovery included: tens of thousands of emails; audio tape recordings, including most notably those made by at least three Government cooperators and one by. Federal Agent who interviewed my client; a key videotape recording made by Federal Agents of the co-Defendant; thousands of pages of bank, financial, and Medicare billing and file records: dozens of 302s; as well as text messages. However, like in most of these cases, much of that voluminous discovery was not ultimately keenly relevant for purposes of trial. The focus is my review was locating those communications that fell it roughly three categories. First, those purportedly “bad” documents that the Government would surely use as trial exhibits against my client. However, many, if not all, of those same documents also supported my client’s defense and fit into the second category that was a key focus of review and identification. That second category was those documents that would demonstrate that my client was merely carrying out ordinary, everyday, job duties and which did not demonstrate that she “knowingly” or “”willfully” violated any law, much less the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Finally, the third category that was an intense focus of identification, review, and analysis was those documents that would allow the Defendants to not only impeach the Government’s witnesses but to make their defense through those same witnesses. In my next post, I will address some of the most significant pre-trial motions that the Defendants pursued.
Written by Michael Leonard
Leonard Trial Lawyers
January 21, 2023