Update: Guilty verdicts in Broward federal healthcare trial

This is the one the blog covered earlier in the week here with Judge Cohn, defense attorney Joel Hirschhorn, and AUSAs Chris Clark/Lisa Miller.

 There were 23 counts and Sebastian Ahmed was found guilty of 18. The jury deliberated over the course of two days.

 One interesting story that I heard -- apparently Hirschhorn asked for a number of mistrials during the course of the trial because of the virus. And it was the defendant himself who objected on his own. Now that's insane. But there's no insanity defense left, sadly.

 Anyway, I think that was the last federal trial occurring in the country. It's anyone's guess when the next one will happen... not until late April at the earliest in this District.

Update on David Lat

We’re all rooting for David Lat, all around good guy and creator of the Above the Law blog.

He’s still on a ventilator.

And now, he’s receiving experimental medication, according to this Law.com article:

David Lat remains in critical condition, on a ventilator and sedated inside a Manhattan hospital, as doctors and his family wait to see over the next several days if the “very experimental” drug therapy he has been given to help him fight the coronavirus will work, said his husband on Monday afternoon.

“We won’t know for a few more days, whether he’s going to get better—whether this stuff [the drug therapy] is working or not,” said his husband of four and a half years, Zachary Baron Shemtob, in a phone interview.

“We’re hanging in there,” he said. “We’re just waiting and hoping.”

The initial sedation Lat was given early on Saturday, as he was put on a potentially life-saving ventilator because his oxygen levels had dropped, did not keep Lat from waking up on Saturday, “immediately opening his eyes, demanding a pen and paper and starting to write down questions, to get to the bottom of everything,” Shemtob said Monday.

“It was just David being David. It wasn’t that he was agitated, but, you know, he was curious and inquisitive,” Shemtob said. “He just wanted to be his inquisitive journalist self. It was shortly after being put on the ventilator.”

Here’s hoping for a speedy and full recovery.

One SDFLA trial carries on while the rest of the justice system has shut down (TWO UPDATES)

SECOND UPDATE — here’s the court order continuing all criminal trials that haven’t started yet until after 4/27.

FIRST UPDATE — in much more serious news, fellow blogger and friend David Lat (the creator of Above the Law) tested positive for COVID-19 and has been placed on a ventilator.  His condition is critical.  I know I speak for everyone when I say that we are thinking of him and his family and wish him the best and to pull through soon.  It’s just awful!

Original Post: As districts around the country issue orders postponing trials and as we await Chief Judge Moore’s order continuing all trials until after 4/27, there is one trial in Broward federal court that is pushing forward.

It’s one of the sober home (health care fraud) cases, U.S. v. Sebastian Ahmed.  The government is alleging $21 million in fraud.

Judge Cohn is presiding.

Chris Clark and Lisa Miller for the government.

Joel Hirschhorn for the defense.

The defendant is in custody.

The trial started back on February 20 and was only supposed to last 3 weeks.  On Monday, they will start week 6 of the trial!  The defendant testified for a few days last week. And the parties closed on Friday.

I understand that the defense has moved a number of times for mistrial based on the virus, but those motions have been denied. I’ve been told that Judge Cohn asked the jurors if they wanted to continue and they said yes.

The Sun-Sentinel covered opening statements back when the case started, before everyone realized how bad the virus was going to be:

“It’s one thing to have sloppy billing practices," Joel Hirschhorn, Ahmed’s defense attorney, said during opening statements. "It’s another for it to be fraud.”
***
The filings also allege that [the defendant’s brother, who pleaded guilty] Ali Ahmed fathered a child with a woman he met while she was seeking recovery at the treatment center and that he provided her with heroin and alcohol while she was pregnant.
“Did they turn a blind eye to unwanted and random sex?” Hirschhorn asked during opening statements.
“Yes,” the lawyer answered, before going on to argue that his client was more focused on the business and that Sebastian Ahmed "did not understand the human side” of the operation.

The Herald covered the sentencing of the brother and other co-defendants:

On Tuesday, Ali Ahmed, 38, the former operations director and co-owner of Medi MD in Davie, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution to the bilked private health insurers.
Prosecutors urged the judge to give Ahmed almost the maximum sentence of 20 years, saying he impregnated a woman with a heroin addiction who was living in a “Serenity” sober home and plied her with the drug. When their child was born, he tested positive for heroin and other drugs.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Clark scoffed at the idea that Ahmed sought as little as five years in prison while citing his devotion to his son as a basis for leniency, highlighting that he was “providing heroin to his girlfriend who was bearing his son.”

In the end, U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno recognized the “vulnerability” of the addicts who were lured to the brothers’ chain of sober homes and substance abuse facilities in Broward. But Moreno also said Ahmed pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility, qualifying him for a potential guideline sentence between 9 and 11 years. So, Moreno split the difference.

Ahmed, standing alongside his attorney, Bradley Horenstein, said: “I am very sorry for the damage I have done to my family. My son will grow up without a father because of me.”

All SDFLA jury trials to be continued until at least 4/27

The judges had a meeting today and agreed on this date.

Latest update from SDFLA

Chief Judge Moore issued the following order, which in effect puts the District on "telework" except for a skeleton crew.

We should be releasing all non-violent offenders on personal surety bonds immediately

It's amazing to me that this hasn't happened yet.  Some magistrate judges are asking for lawyers to revisit bond issues.  Below is one in the Northern District of California.  Come on judges (and prosecutors), let's be proactive and leaders on this issue.

11th Circuit procedures for oral argument week of March 30

Two choices — submit on the papers or do it by phone. The panel is Carnes, Marcus, and Luck. Here’s the email that went out this morning (I have an argument on 4/2).

Supreme Court and BOP closed, other updates

No oral arguments for the Supremes in March.

And BOP is closed for 30 days -- no visits of any kind and no movement.

As of this morning, the 11th Circuit is still planning on conducting oral arguments the week of March 30. 

District Court is still open but judges are being very good about continuing matters and trying to help.