How to Write a Letter to the Court for Sentencing: Felicity Huffman Letter as a Case Study

Credit: SF Gate

In cases, we have clients and friends, colleagues and family write character and support letters. These are not easy letters to write. I'll use the recent letter written by Felicity Huffman as a case study. I view it as a first draft and think it could have been much improved. 

You can review the letter and see what you think. Here's the link to: Huffman Letter, page 1; Huffman Letter, Page 2; and Huffman Letter page 3

First, I tell clients when they write such letters that it is hard to truly apologize at the same time that you're crying for yourself and your family. The letter came off to me as being more about how this has adversely affected Ms. Huffman and her family than how she apologizes to the victims of the SAT cheating fraud and the college students across the country who took the same test her daughter did. She could have acknowledge in greater detail that her actions and bribe resulted in her daughter getting an additional 400 points on the SAT which is a big jump.

Second, I would have told her that her letter focused in my opinion too much upon herself and was too self-involved. Her statements that "I find Motherhood bewildering" and that she was in a "blind panic" when she decided to pay off the proctor would have been deleted by my red pen. Her husband's statements in his letter, see below, about how motherhood was "frightened" his wife did not help.

Director of California Cosmetic Surgery Center Who Fled Pending Trial Is Returned to U.S. to Face Federal Charges in Health Care Fraud Case For Billing Cosmetic Procedures to Insurance as "Medically Necessary"

Extraditions for health care fraud cases are more common now especially where the loss amounts are high. In a recent case, Linda Morrow, a Rancho Mirage woman married to a plastic surgeon, David Morrow, who had fled the United States after being named in a 31-count federal grand jury indictment in 2016, arrived in Southern California on July 1 after being deported by Israel, which had determined that she had entered that nation on a fraudulent Mexican passport. Ms. Morrow faces federal charges related to allegations that she fraudulently billed insurance companies $50 million for “medically necessary” cosmetic surgeries has been returned the United States after fleeing to Israel two years ago.

          

Ms. Morrow appeared in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on July 2, 2019 and entered a not guilty plea to a separate grand jury indictment that charges her with contempt of court for fleeing while free on bond. During that hearing, she was ordered detained and a trial date in the contempt case was scheduled for August 27. She will make another court appearance later this month to discuss the status of the pending health care fraud case.

Ms. Morrow and her husband, David Morrow, were arrested in Israel on June 16. David Morrow, who pleaded guilty in 2016 in the health care fraud case and was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in federal prison, is pending extradition proceedings in Israel. David Morrow also faces contempt of court charges for fleeing while he was pending sentencing.

West Hollywood Doctor Charged With Health Care Fraud, False Statements and Witness Tampering Relating to Billing Medicare for Human Growth Hormone Serostim and Alleged Buybacks From Patients for Resale

On July 2, 2019, a doctor James T. Lee, who operated a medical clinic in West Hollywood where he specialized in treating HIV patients was taken into custody in Vienna, Austria after waiving extradition pursuant to federal charges that allege he defrauded health insurance companies in connection with the brand-name human growth hormone Serostim.

After a federal grand jury returned a 10-count indictment on June 6, Dr. Lee was arrested in Vienna at the request of the United States. Dr. Lee subsequently waived extradition and agreed to return to the United States. The indictment against Dr. Lee charges him with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, six counts of health care fraud, one count of making false statements relating to health care matters, and two counts of witness tampering. Dr. Lee is presumed innocent and charges are not evidence.

The indictment has been unsealed and the arraignment was scheduled in downtown Los Angeles. The government claims that Dr. Lee allegedly engaged in a scheme to divert Serostim – an injectable human growth hormone that is FDA-approved for HIV-positive patients – from legitimate HIV patients to other people who purchased the drug for its purported anti-aging properties. The Food and Drug Administration has approved Serostim for use only by HIV patients with wasting or cachexia who are also receiving antiretroviral therapy. 

According to the Indictment, from at least May 2011 until February 2019, Dr. Lee wrote prescriptions for Serostim to HIV patients, who obtained the drugs and used their Medicare Part D benefits to pay for the drugs. Dr. Lee or those associated with him then illegally purchased the Sersotim back from patients, so that he could re-sell the Serostim. Dr. Lee allegedly re-sold the Serostim to other patients who were not HIV-positive, and who used the human growth hormone to build muscle and for other cosmetic purposes.

Orange County Psychiatrist Sentenced to More than Four Years in Federal Prison for Writing Illegal Opioid Prescriptions to Drug Dealer

On June 19, 2019, a psychiatrist who practiced at a Santa Ana clinic was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for issuing prescriptions for controlled substances, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam and amphetamine salts, to a non-patient in exchange for cash, admitting in his plea agreement that the prescriptions were without a medical purpose and he knew the drugs would be diverted and sold on the street.

Dr. Robert Tinoco Perez was sentenced by Judge Andrew J. Guilford. Dr. Perez pleaded guilty on February 25, 2019 to one felony count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

Dr. Perez admitted that he wrote prescriptions for “patients” he had never met or examined, including an undercover officer. Dr. Perez admitted that he created fictitious medical records for drug customers to provide justification for their prescriptions.

Sacramento Man Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Causing Misbranded Drugs to Be Sold Online As Weight Loss and Fat Burner Pills

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stepped up criminal enforcement where misbranded drugs are being sold online to consumers. On May 29, 2019, Scott Edward Cavell of Sacramento was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to three years in prison for causing misbranded drugs to be introduced into interstate commerce for weight loss. 

According to plea agreement and court documents, between 2015 and 2017, Mr. Cavell, with others, developed a plan to market and sell a drug, 2,4-Dinitrophenol (also known as DNP), as a weight loss drug and “fat burner” despite knowing that DNP is not approved by the FDA as a substance for human consumption. Mr. Cavell sold DNP in pill form and called it a fertilizer — a term under which is it legally sold in other circumstances.

Lengthy Sentence Imposed Upon Patient Recruiter for Home Health Services Where Illegal Kickbacks Were Paid to Doctors and Patients

A Houston, Texas patient recruiter and home health agency owner was sentenced to 188 months in prison today for her role in a $20 million scheme to pay illegal health care kickbacks to physicians and Medicare beneficiaries in order to fraudulently bill for medically unnecessary home health services, and to launder the proceeds. Health care fraud sentences continue to get longer. One recent case involved a lengthy sentence even though it was part of a guilty plea. 

On May 29, 2019, a Houston, Texas patient recruiter Egondu "Kate" Koko was sentenced to 188 months (over 15 years) in federal prison for her role in a federal health care fraud case where she admitted she paid illegal kickbacks to physicians and Medicare beneficiaries in order to fraudulently bill for medically unnecessary home health services for four other home health agencies and her own. 

The sentence came after Ms. Koko pleaded guilty in October 2018 to one count of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. This sentence was lengthier than the norm since there was a money laundering count as in her plea she admitted she laundered the proceeds through another person's bank account.