Recent Posts in Federal Court Category

A man identified as a drug kingpin and a key defendant in a federal gang sweep was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for overseeing the racketeering and drug activities of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens street gang. George Manuel Flores was arrested in 2009 as part of Operation Knockout, one of the nation's largest gang sweeps. He was labeled a leader in the Hawaiian Gardens gangs and was accused of ordering gang members to collect taxes from drug dealers in this Los Angeles county city. He pleaded guilty to five counts including racketeering conspiracy, being a felon in possession of ammunition and other drug charges. Flores was sentenced by a United States District Judge, who is presiding over the 57-defendant racketeering indictment. Prosecutors portrayed Flores as a drug lord.

As part of his guilty plea, he admitted to distributing mass quantities of drugs, including more than 30 kilograms of heroin, more than 4.5 kilograms of crack cocaine, more than 1.5 kilograms of pure methamphetamine, more than 15 kilograms of narcotics that contained methamphetamine, and more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.

The investigation began after Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Ortiz was murdered in 2005 by a gang member he was attempting to arrest. In 2009, about 170 gang members were taken into custody in the massive operation. Flores is the last defendant to be sentenced in this federal prosecution. Marcos Romero was sentenced last November to 291 months in federal prison for being a primary wholesaler of narcotics. Brian Viramontes was sentenced in September to 210 months in federal prison for distributing narcotics. This case also revealed a link between the Nazi Low Riders and the gang. Frank Wayne Henley, a member of the Nazi Low Riders gang, was sentenced last November to 262 months in federal prison for supplying members of the Hawaiian Gardens gang with methamphetamine and heroin.

Federal crimes can be labeled as such by falling under federal legislation of Title 18 of the United States Code. A federal crime is defined as a crime that is either made illegal by falling under this legislation, or because of occurring on federal property. Federal crimes are normally investigated by the FBI and are tried in the Federal Court system. Federal courts have their own governing rules and regulations which are different from California State laws. If you are facing federal criminal charges, you will need to discuss your case with a federal criminal defense lawyer who has the special knowledge of this area of the law. At Marks & Brooklier, we have qualified Los Angeles federal criminal defense attorneys to represent you.

Federal criminal defense attorneys Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are uniquely qualified to represent you in court. They have represented defendants in virtually every major organized crime case prosecuted in Southern California. In 1980, Marks & Brooklier was lead counsel in the "Los Angeles Mafia" case in a major RICO conspiracy case. Conact our office anytime, 24/7, for a free case evaluation. All consultations are strictly confidential.

A San Diego FBI Special Agent announced the arrest of Amado Nicholas Hernandez, of Chico, California. Hernandez was arrested as he arrived on board a cruise ship at the Port of San Diego. Hernandez was arrested by FBI Agents based on information developed from an investigation conducted by the Sacramento FBI. According to the affidavit in a federal criminal complaint filed, Hernandez is alleged to have received and possessed child pornography in violation of federal laws.

In the summer of 2010, the Sacramento Division of the FBI received information from a deputy of the Glenn County Sheriff’s Department regarding a computer he received from a concerned citizen. The citizen had received the computer at an estate sale in Chico, California. The computer had been given away by a woman holding the sale because the computer was thought to be broken. The person who received the computer was a technician who was able to repair the computer. Once the computer was repaired, the  citizen discovered images of child pornography on the hard drive and promptly turned the computer over to law enforcement.

A law enforcement forensic review of the computer revealed that there were approximately 450 still images files of child pornography and approximately 250 video files of child pornography on the computer. Additional review of the computer and address checks for the estate sale residence linked Hernandez to both the computer and residence. The still and video images found on Hernandez’s computer were forwarded to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which compared those files with images of known child pornography victims. NCMEC subsequently reported that 43 of the submitted videos files were of known child victims from 15 different identifiable series of child pornography. They also reported that there were 72 child pornography still images from 35 different identifiable series of child pornography. As there were some video and image files from the same series, there were a total of 44 different child victims who appeared in video or image files on the abandoned computer.

A federal arrest warrant was authorized by a U. S. Magistrate Judge from the United States District Court, Eastern District of California, charging Hernandez with receiving and possessing child pornography. Hernandez was booked into the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Metropolitan Correctional Center in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles child pornography lawyers at Marks & Brooklier are qualified to defend individuals who have been accused of child pornography or any related sex crime. Having the most skilled and experienced criminal defense attorney will ensure you are provided with the defense you require to overcome the these charges. We provide our clients with the highest quality defense that includes a skilled legal team that is aware of how these charges can affect your future. Child pornography lawyers Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have the experience necessary to present a defense that will allow a jury to view all the facts without judging you based soley on emotion. Contact our office for a free case evaluation.

In Sacramento, California, a United States Attorney  announced that United States District Judge Garland E. Burrell sentenced two men to 20-year prison terms today as follows:

David Wehde—Docket #: No. Cr.S-07-491-GEB

David Wehde, 24, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty to using a minor to produce images of child pornography and for receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct via the Internet. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and a life term of supervised release upon his release from custody. He will also have to register as a sex offender and adhere to numerous other conditions of release.

Wehde came to the attention of law enforcement when a minor female from the Natomas area reported Wehde had contacted her via an Internet site called "espinthebottle.com," and that they had sexual relations. At the time the girl was 13 years old, and Wehde was 21 years old. During the examination of Wehde's computer, a forensic analyst found images and videos of child pornography along with Internet chats between Wehde, the 13-year-old girl, and a second 13-year-old girl from El Dorado County. In the chats between Wehde and the El Dorado County girl, the two discussed sex acts they had engaged in. The forensic analyst also found sexually explicit and provocative images Wehde had taken of this girl using his cell phone camera and evidence that he had sent one of the sexually provocative images to another person he communicated with via the Internet.

This case was the product of an extensive investigation by officers and detectives from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Laurel D. White prosecuted the case.

Russell Johnson—Docket #: 2:07-cr-491-GEB

Russell Johnson, of Tracy, California, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. On October 13, 2009, FBI, local, and state law enforcement officers conducted searches in the residences of registered sex offenders in a number of counties, including San Joaquin. Agents contacted Johnson and seized electronic media, including a laptop computer, central processing unit towers, external drives, and other computer components. In addition, law enforcement seized a thumb drive and three compact discs that had been tossed out of the window of the motel room where Johnson was staying when law enforcement knocked and announced themselves at the door. A subsequent forensic analysis of the computer revealed approximately 1,960 image files and 28 video of child pornography. Johnson has two prior state convictions for lewd acts upon a child under 14.

This case is the product of a joint investigation involving multiple agencies in support of the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative. Both cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.

Attorney's Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are well known Los Angeles child pornography criminal defense attorneys.

The Los Angeles child pornography criminal defense lawyers at Marks & Brooklier are qualified to represent clients who have been accused of child pornography or any related crime. Having the most skilled and regarded criminal defense attorney will ensure you are provided with the defense you require to overcome the charges in your case. We provide our clients with the highest quality defense, including a dedicated legal team that is aware of how these charges can adversely affect your future. Marks & Brooklier has the experience necessary to present the type of defense that will allow a jury to view the facts without being caught up in the nature of the charges made against you. Contact our office for a free consultation

In Washington, D.C., an Oakland, California woman was convicted of health care fraud in connection with a scheme to bill Medicare for power wheelchairs that were medically unnecessary, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS). After a one-week trial in federal court in Los Angeles, a jury found Donna K. Wells, guilty of one count of health care fraud. The evidence introduced at trial showed that Wells worked the streets and low-income, senior living communities of Oakland to recruit Medicare beneficiaries to bill Medicare for expensive power wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment (DME) which the beneficiaries did not want, need or use. The beneficiaries who testified at trial said that Wells approached them on the street, at the store, or in the lobby of their apartment buildings and offered them free power wheelchairs in exchange for the beneficiaries allowing Wells to copy their Medicare and California identification cards. One beneficiary testified that when she told Wells that she wanted a hospital bed and did not need or want a power wheelchair, Wells said that the beneficiary had to accept a power wheelchair in order to get a hospital bed. Based on that representation, the beneficiary agreed to accept both a power wheelchair and a hospital bed even though she did not need and never used the wheelchair.

Witnesses who lived in or worked at the San Pablo Hotel, one of the low-income senior living communities where Wells illegally recruited beneficiaries, testified that Wells often sat in the lobby of the hotel offering residents free power wheelchairs and copying their Medicare and California identification cards. These and other witnesses testified that many of the residents of the San Pablo Hotel did not use the power wheelchairs they received through Wells.

According to testimony at trial, Wells sold the beneficiaries' Medicare information to others. Witnesses testified that Wells charged them between $400 and $500 for the Medicare information of each beneficiary she recruited. One witness testified that over a four-year period, Wells sold the witness the Medicare information of approximately 200 different beneficiaries. Once these witnesses received the Medicare information from Wells, they sold the information to a fraudulent medical clinic in Los Angeles, which then used the information to fabricate fraudulent prescriptions for power wheelchairs and other DME in the names of the beneficiaries whom Wells recruited. One of the doctors whose name appeared on these fraudulent prescriptions testified that he never wrote the prescriptions or treated any of the Oakland beneficiaries whom Wells recruited.

Witnesses testified that they purchased the fraudulent power wheelchair and DME prescriptions from the fraudulent medical clinic, and then sold both the Medicare information they received from Wells and the fraudulent prescriptions for more than $1,000 per prescription to a number of Los Angeles-area DME supply companies. These DME supply companies used the beneficiaries' information and the fraudulent prescriptions to submit claims to Medicare for power wheelchairs which cost Medicare approximately $4,000 per wheelchair but cost the DME supply companies approximately $900 per wheelchair wholesale. Evidence introduced at trial showed that these DME supply companies submitted more than $577,000 in false power wheelchairs claims to Medicare. Several beneficiaries testified at trial that they did not need and rarely, if ever, used their power wheelchairs.

One of the DME supply companies that used the Medicare information from Wells was Maydads Medical Supply of Arleta, Calif. Trial evidence established that between June 2007 and August 2009, Maydads Medical Supply submitted approximately $470,973 in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, almost all of which were for power wheelchairs. The owner and operator of Maydads Medical Supply, Sylvester Ijewere, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and was sentenced on Oct. 5, 2010, to 46 months in prison.

Wells was originally charged in October 2009 with three counts of health care fraud. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two of the three counts. U.S. District Court Judge Dales S. Fischer scheduled Wells' sentencing for March 28, 2011. Wells faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the California Department of Justice. HHS OIG assisted with the trial. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in seven districts have obtained indictments of more than 825 individuals who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2 billion. In addition, HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

Because a federal healthcare fraud crimes charge is a serious matter, you will need to consult a skilled and professional federal attorney who can take charge of the situation quickly. It is imperative you do not risk your freedom when you have the power of the federal government investigating your case. Criminal defense attorney's Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are strong and aggressive federal lawyers from Marks & Brooklier. We have four decades of experience in this field, serving hundreds of clients in Los Angeles County, San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills area. We are confident we can assist you with your federal healthcare criminal charges. Contact a Los Angeles healthcare fraud criminal defense attorney today for a free consultation