Personal Injury News: Pick Of Last Month: Jan-2023

Family Of A Mistakenly Shot Teen By NYPD Officers Gets $3M

The city of New York will pay $3 million to the mother of a mentally ill kid who was slain in a hail of police bullets after cops mistook a hairbrush for a rifle.

Five officers fired 20 rounds at the 18-year-old kid outside his house in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on November 12, 2007, sparking marches and indignation from criminal justice activists. The homicide also garnered the attention of the state senate, which alleged that the NYPD withheld footage of the deadly gunfire.

The victim's mother is heartbroken and admits that raising her mentally ill child has been difficult. She went on to say that her child's untimely death had broken her heart.

The lawyer representing the plaintiff said that the city agreed to settle the case but in the end it is only money that the mother will get but not her son so anyway it is a loss for her even if the verdict favors her.

 A lawsuit brought by the victim's mother sat in state court for almost a decade before the city won summary judgement and had the case dismissed in 2017. However, a state appeals panel overruled that ruling two years ago, stating that a jury should decide whether the cops used excessive force.

The victim's mother phoned Interfaith Medical Center's mobile crisis team at about noon on the day of the incident to beg for assistance with her son. He had a mental disease history and had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medicines.

A crisis team arrived at her house at 6:30 p.m., but he was not present, so the team departed. When the teen returned a few minutes later, the mother contacted the cops.

During the 911 call, the kid could be heard repeatedly shouting in the background that he had a gun, but the mother stressed that he did not have a firearm in a follow-up contact with the dispatcher.

When officers arrived at the residence, they saw the youngster in a hallway with two knives, according to the then-NYPD Commissioner. Officers escorted the mother and her 11-year-old daughter out of the house, and the mother repeatedly stated that her son was not carrying a gun.

According to the first police statement, as the policemen approached the youngster, he brandished the blades and yelled at them to shoot him and grab him. He climbed out a window and landed on the sidewalk, then motioned with an object hidden beneath his hoodie. Officers fired 20 rounds, striking the youngster 13 times. The thing he was holding was a black hairbrush.

The city defended the officers by stating that they did the right thing and it was not their fault, as they misunderstood the hairbrush to the gun. The lawyer representing the plaintiff argued that the three witnesses and bystanders of the scenario said that the story is different from what the city officials mentioned.

FedEx Driver Sued For Killing A 7-Year-Old Girl

The father of a 7-year-old girl has accused a FedEx delivery man in Texas of murdering his daughter.

He filed the claim in Wise County court several weeks after his daughter was discovered dead in a body of water in Boyd, roughly 10 miles from his Paradise home.

This month, the driver was arrested on accusations of capital murder and aggravated abduction. Authorities claimed he informed them he put the kid in his van after hitting her with the car. According to an affidavit, he killed her because he was afraid she would tell her father about being hit by a FedEx truck.

At the time, the accused worked for Big Topspin, a FedEx subcontractor. Horner and both firms are mentioned as defendants. According to the lawsuit, the girl was playing in her front yard when the defendants brought Christmas presents. According to other media sites, her mother stated that he was dropping off the "You Can Be Anything" Barbie dolls.

According to the lawsuit, after hitting her with the van, the accused either took her inside the van or encouraged her to join the van. Despite the fact that the infant was not significantly injured, the accused was accused of murdering her.

FedEx and Big Topspin are accused of carelessness in the lawsuit. The family is requesting more than a million dollars. FedEx is aware of the issue, according to a representative. Big Topspin could not be reached for comment immediately, and it is unclear whether the accused has retained a counsel to speak on his behalf.

The youngster was reported missing at about 6:41 p.m. on Nov. 30 after she went missing from her home. According to the affidavit, investigators discovered that a FedEx driver had delivered items to the residence around the same time and collaborated with the contracting firm to establish which driver was on that route.

Investigators also discovered that the van was outfitted with cameras that filmed the accused transporting a little girl who resembled the defendant's daughter in his van. According to the affidavit, the driver was seen on camera conversing with her in the vehicle. A $1.5 million bail has been set for the driver.

Physician Penalized With $4.2M In Claims Fraud Settlement

A Connecticut-based physician and several of his companies have been forced to pay $4.2 million in damages for filing fraudulent claims for payment to Medicare and the state Medicaid programme for inappropriate billing and needless services.

The state and federal settlements centre on a pulmonologist and his DOCS-branded enterprises, including DOCS Medical Group, Lung DOCS of CT, Epic Family Physicians, and Continuum Medical Group.

The defendant and DOCS were forced to pay $4,267,950.21 in damages, and the pulmonologist was ordered to sign an Integrity Agreement that included compliance requirements and yearly claim reviews. The defendant owns approximately 20 locations that provide general care, urgent care, allergy testing and treatment, and COVID testing.

According to investigators, between 2014 and 2019, filed claims showing services supplied by the defendant on days he was out of the country were instead conducted by lower-level providers, who typically receive a lesser payment rate from Medicare and Medicaid for those services.

There were also claims for medically unnecessary yearly allergy re-testing in patients, as well as claims for medically unnecessary immunotherapy services. When it came to delivering COVID tests, the government claimed DOCS, and the defendant invoiced Medicare and state Medicaid for them as assessment and management office visits.

The defendant and his extensive network of urgent care facilities were involved in a long-running plan to overbill the state and federal governments for medically inappropriate treatment as well as therapy that he and his crew never delivered. Aside from a $4.2 million fine, the defendant and his clinic's billing will be subject to continued inspection and examination to ensure that these inappropriate actions do not occur again.

Prison Officer At JCCC Granted $2M In Assault Settlement

A financial payout was given to a prison officer at the Jefferson City Correctional Center after an inmate assault left him with serious and lasting disabilities.

Following an incident at JCCC on July 19, the officer and his wife filed a lawsuit against the convict. According to the lawsuit, the inmate's activities caused the officer to be unable to appropriately provide for his wife. According to online court documents, the cop received $1.5 million in damages, while his wife received $500,000 in damages.

According to the lawsuit, the officer informed the inmate at about 8 a.m. to lock down in his cell, but he refused. According to the lawsuit, the convict then pushed the officer down and punched, kicked, and beat him repeatedly and savagely.

The cop suffered serious and lasting head, brain, side, and hip injuries. According to the claim, he was in a coma for six days and was on life support. It was also said that the cop would be unable to work again.

The inmate is also charged with first-degree assault on a special victim. In that matter, no hearing has been scheduled. The convict had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for first-degree assault, robbery, burglary, and armed criminal action. In March 2021, he pled guilty to the counts in Johnson County. He is presently incarcerated in the Potosi Correctional Center.

$15M Penalty For Healthcare Providers Over False Medicaid Billing

Two healthcare providers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, including Dignity Health, have agreed to pay $22.5 million in settlement arrangements to resolve charges that they violated federal and state law by submitting phoney invoices to Medicaid.

Dignity Health agreed to pay the federal government $13.5 million and the state $1.5 million. Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, as well as French Hospital Medical Center and Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in southern San Luis Obispo County, are all owned and operated by Dignity Health. In both counties, it also runs Pacific Coast, Health Centers.

Tenet Healthcare, which operates Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, agreed to pay $6.4 million to the federal government and $750,000 to the state in a separate settlement.

According to the US Attorney, these healthcare practitioners diverted crucial Medicaid cash for their personal benefit rather than using it to offer healthcare services to the most vulnerable people. These significant settlements underscore the administration's commitment to holding responsible healthcare providers that attempt to manipulate the Medicaid programme and hurt the American taxpayer. They were among many Central Coast healthcare businesses accused of filing false claims by a whistleblower.

The charges were made against the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo Regional Health Authority, also known as CenCal Health, which is in charge of managing the Medi-Cal programme in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties (Medicaid in California is called Medi-Cal).

Dignity Health provides a variety of services in line with a pre-existing programme and agreement. Dignity Health filed full monthly reconciliation statements and annual reports to CenCal Health under the programme and was paid in compliance with the agreements, the firm said in a statement. As a result, Dignity Health got fair market value compensation from CenCal for services actually given to this vulnerable group, and the organisation argues that all payments were handled lawfully.

Dignity Health reached a settlement deal with the federal government and the state of California to handle the case without the expense of litigation and without admitting any responsibility.

The charges concerned the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Medicaid Adult Expansion (ACA). The two settlements resolve charges that healthcare providers filed false Medi-Cal claims for "Enhanced Services" given by Dignity Health to certain CenCal patients between Feb. 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, and by Twin Cities and Sierra Vista between Jan. 1, 2014, and April 30, 2015.

The payments were not "authorised medical costs," according to the contract between the California Department of Health Care Services and the county-organized health system, CenCal Health in this case.

They also claimed that the charges had problems such as not reflecting the fair market value of any Enhanced Services offered or duplicating previously necessary services.

According to US officials, the legal settlements address allegations made under federal whistleblower statutes by the former medical director of CenCal Health, which contracted with Dignity, Twin Cities, and Sierra Vista for the provision of Medi-Cal health care services.

The legislation allows anybody to file an action on behalf of the United States and get a percentage of any recovery. According to the US Attorney's Office, the former medical director of CenCal Health would earn $3.9 million as his portion of the government recovery. Santa Barbara County achieved a Medi-Cal billing settlement with the Department of Justice in October.