Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 123, No. 105 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
May 1, 2014
Fraud case tossed over investigator’s conduct
SANTA FE (AP) — The state Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a Medicaid fraud case as a sanction for the attorney general’s of fice creating and using a false document in pursuing claims against a health care company. Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for Attor ney General Gary King, said Wednesday the office hasn’t decided whether to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. “However, we do believe a complete
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dismissal of the fraud case was not the correct and just way to go,” Sisneros said in a statement. In a ruling on Monday, the Court of Appeals affirmed an Albuquerque district judge’s decision in 2011 to dismiss the fraud claims and prevent the case from being refiled. The court said the judge “was presented with severe misconduct, prejudicial to the administration of justice. The circumstances are ironic in that the state was prosecuting a claim of
fraud using created, false documents to do so.” At issue were letters an attorney general’s investigator had prepared by an agency to show when criminal background checks were completed for caregivers of Advantageous Community Services, an Albuquerque company that provided home-based health care services. The letters weren’t copies of the originals from 2006, but were recreated at the request of the investigator from the Health Depart-
ment’s computer records because the agency no longer kept paper copies and couldn’t reprint an exact copy of the originals. The department provided an explanation to the investigator for differences in the letters, but the investigator didn’t provide that infor mation to the assistant attorney general prosecuting the case or tell the prosecutor that the documents weren’t authentic copies. Information was correct about the names of the
Mark Wilson Photo
Playtime Amusement employees from Las Cruces assemble carnival rides at Cielo Grande Recreation area Wednesday afternoon, readying for the upcoming weekend's Party on the River / Fiesta del Rio.
caregivers and the dates they cleared their background checks. But the documents obtained by the investigator had an updated Department of Health letterhead from Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration rather than when Gov. Bill Richardson was in office in 2006. The text of the letters differed from the originals, and the names of department and company officials also were different. The court said the letters were critical because the
attorney general’s office was pursuing allegations that the company received Medicaid payments for services by caregivers before they obtained proper clearance from the background check.
MENTONE, Texas (AP) — A buildup of pressure caused an explosion as workers were changing a wellhead Wednesday at a We s t T e x a s o i l f i e l d , killing two of them and injuring nine others, a sheriff said. Loving County Sherif f Billy Hopper said authorities received an emergency call before 8:30 a . m . We d n e s d a y a b o u t the explosion some 60 miles southeast of Carlsbad. The two workers who were killed died at the scene, he said. Their names have not been released. Hopper said all of the nine workers who were hurt had minor injuries and did not go to a hospital. It was not clear Wednesday which company operates the oil field, he said. Initial reports indicated the workers were operating an oil rig, but Hopper later clarified they were using heavy machinery to
switch out the wellhead.
Sisneros said the investigator, whose name wasn’t included in the Appeals Court ruling, is voluntarily leaving the attorney general’s of fice next week for another job but the move wasn’t related to the court case.
2 killed, 9 hurt in oil field explosion
“Those wellheads are tremendously heavy pieces of equipment,” he said, explaining they can weigh more than 1,000 pounds.
He said receiving updates from his deputies at the scene was difficult because radio communications are erratic and cell phones don’t work in the rural area. Loving County is the most sparsely populated county in the United States, he said, and many oil fields are in far -flung locations that can be difficult to reach. The energy boom in Texas and other parts of the U.S. is evident in Loving, he said, with fresh oil fields sprouting up.
“This is the first accident we’ve had like this in a b o u t a y e a r, ” H o p p e r said.
Stepfather of slain boy Lovington PD helps injured Roswell officer faces abuse charges
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — A Bernalillo County grand jury on Wednesday indicted an Albuquerque man on numerous charges related to a deadly child abuse case that has prompted major reforms in the way childabuse cases are investigated in New Mexico. Stephen Casaus, the stepfather of 9-year-old Omaree Varela, is facing six counts of child abuse, two counts of bribery of a witness and one count of tampering with evidence. He was also indicted in an unrelated drug-trafficking case. It wasn’t immediately clear if Casaus had been assigned an attorney. Omaree Varela was found dead at his family’s home on Dec. 27. Police say he was kicked to death by his mother, Synthia Varela-Casaus.
She has pleaded not guilty to more than 20 charges related to the boy’s death.
Prosecutors allege Casaus, 41, allowed the boy to be placed in a situation that December day that ultimately resulted in the child’s death. They say Casaus also acted with reckless disregard for the boy’s safety and health in the weeks leading up to the death, resulting in the child being beaten, burned, bitten and cut. The case set off a firestorm of criticism against Albuquerque police and the state Children, Youth and Families Department for not removing the boy from his home after receiving earlier reports of abuse.
Courtesy Photo
Local attorney Jeff Diamond was recently named the recipient of the Bill Daniels Award for Ethical Entrepreneurship, and he received the award at the 15th annual Ethics in Business dinner and awards celebration held April 23 in Albuquerque.
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TODAY’S FORECAST
TIMOTHY P. HOWSARE RECORD EDITOR
Police of ficers make tremendous sacrifices to protect the safety of the public. Sgt. Steve Meredith made such a sacrifice in October when he was severely injured while assisting the New Mexico State Police in an officerinvolved shooting incident in Roswell. While conducting traffic control, Meredith, a 17year veteran of the force, was struck by a vehicle that failed to stop at a police roadblock. Months later, Meredith is still recovering from the injuries he sustained on See MEREDITH, Page A3
Timothy P. Howsare Photo
From left, Lovington Police Chief Danny Bryant and Lovington Police Lt. Daniel Rodriguez watch as Lovington Patrol Officer Jeannette Sandoval, right, presents Roswell Police Sgt. Steve Meredith with a stuffed McGruff the Crime Dog. Moments earlier, Bryant had presented Meredith with a check for $1,200.
Diamond receives Ethical Entrepreneurship Award Local attorney Jeff Diamond was honored on April 23 when he was named the recipient of the Bill Daniels Award for Ethical Entrepreneurship at the 15th annual Ethics in Business dinner and awards celebration held in Albuquerque. Diamond began his law practice, the Jeff Diamond Law Firm, in Carlsbad 38 years ago and now has offices in six New Mexico and Texas communities — Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, Roswell, Odessa and El Paso.
Diamond previously served on the Carlsbad Board of Education and on Carlsbad City Council, where he focused his energies on developing vocational trades training programs and affordable housing initiatives. He also has been regional board chairman of the Anti-Defamation League. Diamond and his wife, Evy, lost a son, Shannon, to melanoma. He and his wife established a foundation to educate people about the disease — listen-
toyourmom.org. “Being an attor ney means you know the law and how the system works,” Diamond said. “That knowledge gives you the power to right wrongs and move society forward.” There were 31 nominees this year: 10 Not for Profits, 14 For Profits and seven individuals. Samaritan partners with the UNM Anderson School of Management for the annual selection and recognition of highly ethical businesses, non-profit
• JAMES “JE” PACK • GLENN BOYD PRAGER • JEAN MCNEIL HAMMOND
• DAVE BUTTON • ROGER LEE BARNHILL AND MYRTLE M. BARNHILL
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B4
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
organizations and individuals. Open nominations are made by the community-atlarge, and then UNM business ethics students, guided by UNM Professor Sarah D. Smith, complete a semester -long research project reporting on the final nominees.
An independent volunteer selection committee, chaired by Henry C. South, Managing Director at Atkinson & Co., named this year’s recipients.
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8