Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Published on: September 26, 2011

Los Angeles Medical Crime Blotter: Michael Jackson’s Doc Told Paramedics Star Was “Fine” When He Was in Fact “Dead”

Crimes like Los Angeles Medicare, Medical, and Medicaid fraud are serious and scary for defendants. But the details often make for dry, complicated reading.

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Readers interested in pulpy, tabloid-like Southern California medical crimes might be more galvanized by an amazing revelation in the trial of Michael Jackson’s erstwhile doctor, Conrad Murray.

According to a report from the UK paper, The Mirror, the transcript of a witness statement “revealed that the doctor [Conrad Murray] stood in front of a lifeless Jacko in the singer’s bedroom and claimed: “He doesn’t have a problem. He is fine. He was practicing all night. I am just treating him for dehydration.””

Published on: September 19, 2011

Now Here’s a Glendale DUI You Don’t See Every Day…Woman Busted for DUI Twice in Five Hours!

by Michael Kraut

Every week, dozens of stories about driving under the influence in Glendale (and the rest of the southland) get published and discussed in the blogosphere. And SoCal is sure home to some strange DUI stories. But last week, the most spectacular DUI story in the country came from Boise, Idaho, of all places, where police arrested 47-year-old Michelle Caves twice for driving under the influence… within a five-hour span!

Amazing stuff.

Here’s how it all went down, according to the local Boise new station, KBOI 2. Caves had dropped in at a retail store on Apple Street: “Employees told police that [she] smelled of alcohol, and stumbled and dropped items while walking around the store. They say they couldn’t stop Caves from getting in her car and driving away, or… get the license plate number of her car.”

The police then tracked down Caves, pulled her over, and gave her field sobriety tests (which she failed) as well as breathalyzer tests that pegged her at significantly more than four times over the legal limit for Boise (and Glendale) DUI of 0.08%. The police arrested her, booked her into a local jail, and secured her car.

Pretty normal stuff. But then…
Later that evening, “police got a call from a citizen reporting that a drunk driver had returned to her car and was going to drive home. Officers determined it was the same woman they had arrested earlier, and located the car around the corner from where it originally had been pulled over. Police say the car swerved into oncoming traffic and almost drove head on into the officer’s car.”

Lo and behold, it was Caves again. She got retested and her BAC was slightly lower this time – around 0.24% – but still high enough to be more than three times over the state’s legal limit.

After this second, embarrassing arrest, police “requested that Caves’ car be towed to a private, secured lot.”

Obviously, this story is something of an impressive oddity. But it does hold hidden lessons for defendants in Glendale DUI cases. One lesson is that drivers often make mistakes “after the fact” that can dreadfully complicate their legal situations. Of course, had Caves been arrested only once, she still would have been in trouble. But now she faces all sorts of extra headaches because she made bad decisions that compounded her earlier bad decisions.

In fact, it’s this cycle of bad decision-making that often creates the most long-term problems for people. Getting arrested for a Glendale DUI is already a major problem, but it’s the spiral of poor thinking upon poor thinking that creates huge problems.

Fortunately, you can stop that spiral by connecting with an experienced and Harvard Law School educated Glendale DUI defense attorney at the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. (121 W Lexington Dr, Glendale, CA 91203 Phone: (818) 507-9123). Attorney Michael Kraut served as Senior Deputy District Attorney for the city of Los Angeles for over 14 years, and he uses his relationships with prosecutors, knowledge of the system, strategic understanding of the law, and other resources to help clients build vigorous defenses.

Published on: September 12, 2011

Hope after Beverly Hills DUI Arrest? Redemption is Possible – Just Ask the 49-ers’ Braylon Edwards

by Michael Kraut

Getting arrested for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills is zero fun.

Contrary to popular perceptions, drivers who violate California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a) or 23152(b) are often acutely remorseful, scared, and dismayed by their actions, even hours after an arrest. And while some DUI defendants certainly “fit the stereotype” many people have, the reality is that defendants are diverse and come from all over the community.

One common thread among Beverly Hills DUI defendants is fear.

Defendants worry about job security, family, the possibility of jail time, the possibility of a license suspension, the logistical inconvenience of having to attend weeks or months of alcohol school, the embarrassment of facing strict probation terms, and so on. And these punishments are very real possibilities, by the way, even if you committed a small, misdemeanor Beverly Hills DUI, and it was your first offense.

But certain choices you make now – after the fact, while you are more rational – can radically change the course of your life. Your decision to work with a reputable, creditable Harvard Law School educated Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney, for instance, might lead to a better outcome than you currently believe is possible.

It is also helpful to look at public DUI news events to see how they play out. As a case in point, consider the San Francisco Forty-Niners’ Braylon Edwards. The wide receiver pled guilty to a DUI in July and got fined $50,000. Under ordinary circumstances, he might have been suspended from playing in the NFL, which could have derailed his career and led to a professional catastrophe. And sports analysts who examined similar cases involving Kenny Britt, Aqib Talib, and Terrelle Pryor, thought Edwards’ situation could have gone either way.

He could have been suspended, but he got lucky.

This goes to show that your case is not entirely within your control. Edwards could have done everything the same but been suspended and he wouldn’t have had any say in the matter.

The important takeaway here is that Beverly Hills DUI defendants need to figure out what they can control and what they can’t control. And then they need to focus on what they can control, such as their choice of attorney. Beverly Hills DUI attorney Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935), can put together a powerful and solid defense plan for you, irrespective of the circumstances and complexity of your legal challenges.

Published on: September 4, 2011

Southern California Medicare Fraud Crackdown: It’s Real and Becoming More Vigorous

by Michael Kraut

Were you or a close family member or friend recently arrested and charged with Los Angeles healthcare fraud? If so, you are not alone.

According to recently released government statistics – thanks to the Obama administration’s efforts, federal healthcare fraud prosecutions spiked more than 85% in 2011 over 2010. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) statistics show that the federal government has prosecuted over 900 people so far this year for healthcare fraud. In all of fiscal year 2010, only 731 people were prosecuted across the U.S. The TRAC data suggest that prosecutions have spiked more than 70% from just half a decade ago.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Alisa Finelli, confirmed the TRAC data analysis: “the trend certainly looks accurate and on track with our data.” Over the past 12 months, the Justice Department has brought out the heavy ammunition to nail executives, nurses, doctors, and other caregivers (e.g. chiropractors, dentists, etc.) for defrauding programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Here are some fraud arrest highlights from 2011:

Published on: August 29, 2011

Your Glendale DUI Defense: How Might the Fall of Gaddafi’s Regime Affect It?

by Michael Kraut

Last week, Moammar Gaddafi’s four-plus decade rein over Libya came to a screeching halt as rebels overtook Green Square in Tripoli.

If you were recently arrested for driving under the influence in Glendale, you probably weren’t paying much attention. You were probably focused more on the imminent crises in your life – potential jail time, license suspension, mandatory installation of interlock ignition device, and other problems that you could face if you are ultimately convicted of Glendale DUI.

Maybe you made a mistake, ignoring the news.

Maybe you should have been paying attention to Libya – and not just to have something to chat about with coworkers while you gather around the water cooler. You see, the rapid and surprising collapse of Gaddafi’s loyalist forces indirectly teaches us a powerful lesson about Glendale DUI defense.

Yes, it sounds like a stretch at first. But stay with this train of thought…
When you read analyses of the drama in Libya, there is a common refrain: “No one saw this coming.” NATO didn’t anticipate it, policymakers didn’t anticipate it, probably even the rebels themselves didn’t anticipate that they would be able to march into Tripoli in such short order. This kind of deer-caught-in-the-headlights reaction is typical during war. Events on the ground often come as a surprise, and war plans disintegrate often immediately after they go into effect.

Now, building a coherent defense against Glendale DUI – to get you unhooked from charges pursuant to California Vehicle Code Sections 23152(a) or 23152(b) – is not exactly like going to a war. But both war and DUI defense involve strategic thinking – and they also involve surprising setbacks and opportunities. Good generals – and good Glendale criminal defense attorneys, too –understand the power of strategic thinking as well as the power of renegotiating, reassessing, and reforming plans in the midst of battle.

For instance, in your case, new evidence might suddenly emerge that could potentially get your charges dropped or at least give prosecutors a much harder time. If you don’t have the strategic focus and flexibility available to take advantage of that development, you might miss out on a key opportunity to reduce your sentence.

Just as the Libyan rebels managed to take advantage of the surprising collapse of Gaddafi’s forces to turn the tide and take down Tripoli, your Glendale DUI defense attorney may potentially leverage surprising developments in your favor. These include sudden revelations of weaknesses in the prosecution’s case and other subtle factors that could transform your options and get you better results than you – or even your attorney – ever expected.

To that end, you want to work with an attorney who thinks like a general – who helps you not only construct the right strategic defense, but also continually reassesses your options in real time. Attorney Michael Kraut of Glendale’s Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. (121 W Lexington Dr, Glendale, CA 91203 Phone: (818) 507-9123) has a unique vantage on Glendale DUI defense law. Attorney Kraut served as a prosecutor for over 14 years. He put DUI defendants behind bars before switching over to become a criminal defense attorney. Since he has “played the game from both sides,” he can help you understand what your prosecutors are planning and counter-plan accordingly.

Published on: August 21, 2011

Los Angeles Medicare Fraud Bust Nabs a Man of God. What is Our World Coming to?

by Michael Kraut

Last Tuesday, a jury convicted Pastor Christopher Iruke in a multimillion dollar Los Angeles healthcare fraud case. Iruke, an employee, and Iruke’s wife were nailed on charges of healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud for devising and carrying out a scam that bilked Medicare for $14 million.

A story last week in the Los Angeles Times painted a vivid picture of Iruke’s last moments before his arrest. As federal authorities zeroed in on his fraud ring, the pastor of a South LA storefront church started to “shove pages upon pages of incriminating evidence into a shredder until the machine overheated. He then stuffed papers into the toilet and tried flushing his problems away…the documents linked him to bogus prescriptions for power wheelchairs for which he billed the government about $6,000 a piece, prosecutors alleged.”

Prosecutors said that the pastor collected about $6.6 million in reimbursements from the false claims (out of $14.2 million in claims filed) and that “the money funded a lavish lifestyle, including several luxury cars, international travel, and about $0.5 million remodeling on his Baldwin Hills home.”

Published on: August 15, 2011

Making the Pasadena DUI Process Way Too Complicated? Maybe it’s Your Bad Handwriting… like Justin Bieber’s?

by Michael Kraut

Hopefully we won’t be reading about Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus going through the gauntlet of the Pasadena DUI process any time soon.

We need at least some of our young fresh-faced celebrities to stay sober and clean and act as responsible role models. But young celebs like Cyrus and Bieber are already setting something of a bad example. According to a recent article on CNN.com – “nation of adults who write like children” – Cyrus, Bieber, and other young celebrities have atrocious handwriting. The article quoted Justin King, a paparazzi who sells celebrity autographs: “with stars ages 30 and above, they generally have a much more full, legible signature. When you deal with these new people like Elle Fanning, you are lucky if you get an E and F and a heart for a signature.”

How does this all relate to the Pasadena DUI process?

It does, actually.

Because defendants recently arrested for violating California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a) or 231521(b) – driving under the influence in Pasadena (or elsewhere in Southern California) — must deal with a certain amount of bureaucracy, or risk of losing their licenses or encountering other legal trouble down the line.

If your handwriting is terrible – like Bieber’s and Cyrus’s, for instance – and you submit illegible forms, several things might happen. You might be asked to fill out the forms again. Or, quite possibly, the documents can be misinterpreted, leading to all sorts of unpleasant bureaucratic complications.

Given that your future is on the line – not just your potential freedom, but also your driver’s license, future insurance rates, employability, etc., it behooves you to connect with an experienced Pasadena criminal defense attorney who can explain your options.

Pasadena’s Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. (790 East Colorado Boulevard, 9th floor, Pasadena, California 91101 Phone: (626) 345-1899) provides the help, support, and resources you need (minus the handwriting instruction) to manage your Pasadena DUI charge with aplomb. Attorney Kraut is a widely respected figure in the Pasadena DUI community. Please read more about his background, credentials, history as a former city prosecutor (Senior Deputy District Attorney), and critical information about the relevant law (“Pasadena DUI 101”) on his site, or connect with him now for a free consultation.

Published on: August 9, 2011

Southern California Medicare Fraud “Shot Across the Bow” – 26 Busted for Defrauding Medicare and Medicaid out of Nearly $60 Million

by Michael Kraut

Newsflash: the Southern California Medicare fraud crackdown is real.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, FBI, and other organizations are taking dead aim at fraud rings. They want to punish schemers and sending a warning to would-be white collar criminals in Los Angeles: consequences can be dire.

The latest shot across the bow comes out of Detroit. Last week, 26 people were indicted in US District Court. Allegedly, they bilked Medicare and Medicaid out of over $58 million in a fraudulent prescription scheme. The alleged mastermind, Babubhai “Bob” Patel, allegedly purchased a number of local Detroit pharmacies and then “set them up with store owners to conceal his stake in the enterprise.” Using this structure, Patel and his fellow coconspirators wrote bogus prescriptions and collected kickbacks. Patients were recruited to bribe individuals “to bill their insurance for medications and services that were either never provided or unnecessary.”

Published on: August 2, 2011

Beverly Hills DUI Crushed Dreams: Olympic Silver Medalist “Speedy,” Tagged for Speeding in Ohio, Commits Suicide

by Michael Kraut

The most tragic Beverly Hill DUI arrests, at least from a narrative point of view, are ironic.

In other words, there is an inherent dissonance. When a young and healthy celebrity – someone who has everything going for him or her – crashes a car and winds up behind bars, you can’t help pay attention to the dissonance between the image of this “perfect person” and the dire straits he or she is now in.

Not all stories about Burbank DUI, Pasadena DUI, DUI in Glendale, and DUI in Los Angeles have this element of irony in them. But a story last week out of Hailey, Idaho definitely had that element — tragically so. 29-year old Olympic silver medalist, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, got arrested the Friday before last for DUI and speeding… and then things took a terrible turn.

The three time Olympian apparently had “caused a disturbance” somewhere in Sun Valley, Idaho before getting behind the wheel and driving off at a fast clip. A local police chief, Jeff Gunter, said: “when he went through Hailey, we estimated he was going 80 miles per hour, and they didn’t get him stopped until Belleview.” In addition to being hit with a misdemeanor DUI charge, Peterson also faced a charge of “fictitious display of license plates.” The Olympian had gotten in the trouble in the past. During the 2006 Winter Games, he got into a bar fight that got him sent home from the Olympics.

He was also a very decorated Olympic athlete – in addition to his Olympic silver medal, he helped win a national championship and seven victories at the World Cup.

In any event, few expected the minor arrest to end in tragedy. But it did. Just days after the arrest, and only “seventeen months after reaching the pinnacle of his career by winning a silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics… Peterson was found dead in a remote canyon in Utah in what police are calling a suicide.” (USA Today article published 7/26)

Devastating news, and a sad illustration of how DUIs can cause terrible and unexpected stresses in the lives of everyone involved.
If you have a Beverly Hills DUI case, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney can help you understand what might have gone wrong, how to respond to your charges effectively and efficiently, and how to move beyond the arrest and charges to get a grip on your life again. Michael Kraut, of Beverly Hill’s Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450 Beverly Hills, California 90210 (310) 550-6935), is an experienced, highly reputable, compassionate former prosecutor who is devoted to helping defendants build better cases and rebuild their lives. Connect with him today to get a consultation.

Published on: July 25, 2011

Will New Computer Models Lead to Dozens of New Los Angeles Medicare Fraud Arrests?

by Michael Kraut

Brace yourself for a slew of high profile Southern California medicare fraud arrests.

According to a July 10 article in Los Angeles Times, “Medicare Anti-fraud Detection System Launched,” federal officials have set up a powerful new predictive modeling system to identify Medicare fraud and punish syndicates and individuals who bill for false claims and engage in other types of fraud.

The LAT describes the computer predictive modeling system – which was honed in South Florida over a few years – as working “much like credit card systems that raise alerts about suspicious purchases – such as 20 pairs of shoes or unusually large sales – to help block criminals from using stolen cards or IDs.”