Forensics Talk

"Maryland Senate Votes Down Legislation To Bolster Medicaid Fraud Investigation Efforts"

Medical News Today

Article Date: 27 Mar 2009 - 7:00 PDT

     "The Maryland Senate on Tuesday defeated by one vote a bill that intended to step up efforts to root out fraud in the state's Medicaid program, the Baltimore Sun reports. The bill, which was similar to laws passed in almost half of the states, would have enabled Maryland officials to pursue smaller cases of fraud and collect civic penalties of up to $10,000 and triple damages. Under current law, those found guilty of fraud can be penalized only for the amount in question. In addition, the law would have allowed whistle-blowers to file lawsuits on behalf of the state.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said the bill should be passed in light of the state's financial troubles and included $22 million in his budget proposal from additional collections from providers who defraud Medicaid. According to some estimates, 10% of Medicaid dollars are lost to fraud, and state officials say that since the federal government passed similar legislation in 1986, it has recouped more than $16 billion. Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Inspector General Thomas Russell said, "States that have this have been able to put taxpayer money back into the budget as a result of unscrupulous entities taking advantage of the Medicaid program."

The bill faced strong opposition from doctor, hospital and pharmaceutical industry groups, . . ." Read More

"Mayo Study Shows Simple Finger Device May Help Predict Future Heart Events, Such As Heart Attack"

Medical News Today

     "Results of a Mayo Clinic study show that a simple, noninvasive finger sensor test is "highly predictive" of a major cardiac event, such as a heart attack or stroke, for people who are considered at low or moderate risk, according to researchers.

The study will be presented Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. EDT at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in Orlando (0917-7).

The noninvasive finger test device, called the EndoPAT by Itamar Medical, measures the health of endothelial cells by measuring blood flow. Endothelial cells line the blood vessels and regulate normal blood flow. Research has shown that if the cells don't function properly -- a condition called endothelial dysfunction -- it can set the stage for atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and lead to major cardiovascular health problems. Previously, there was no simple test for endothelium function, says Amir Lerman, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic and the senior author of the study.

Forty-nine percent of patients whose EndoPAT test indicated poor endothelial function had a cardiac event during the seven-year study. Researchers at Mayo Clinic and Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston used the device to test 270 patients between the ages of 42 and 66 and followed their progress from August 1999 to August 2007. These patients already knew that they had low-to-medium risk of experiencing a major heart event, based on their Framingham Risk Score. The score is the commonly used risk predictor and was developed from the Framingham Heart Study, a longitudinal study of heart disease. . . " Read More

"Contaminated VA equipment infects 16, most still untested"

The Associated Press

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.28.2009                        

 

    

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — "Viral infections, including hepatitis, have been found in 16 patients exposed to contaminated equipment at Veterans Affairs medical facilities, a department spokeswoman said Friday.

So far, 10 colonoscopy patients from the VA medical center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., have tested positive for hepatitis, VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts told The Associated Press. In a later e-mail, she reported six patients at the VA's ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta, Ga, tested positive for unspecified viral infections.

 

    

Roberts stressed that the source of the infections isn't known, but said the VA will make sure those who tested positive "get the best possible treatment."

"There's no way to scientifically, conclusively prove they contracted this due to treatment at our facility," Roberts said.

The number of reported infections could rise.

More than 10,000 veterans were warned to get blood tests because they could have been exposed to contamination at those two facilities plus a medical center in Miami. All three sites failed to properly sterilize equipment between treatments, and the problems dated back for more than five years at the Murfreesboro and Miami hospitals.

Roberts said the department doesn't yet have results from most of the veterans it warned.

A VA alert to patients said they "could have been exposed to body fluids from a previous patient." Read More

Groups Report Common Ground On Reforming US Health Care

The Associated Press

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.28.2009

 

  

WASHINGTON — Groups often at odds over health-care reform — consumers, insurers, doctors, employers — reached a broad agreement Friday that could serve as a starting point for lawmakers trying to overhaul the system.

Although the long-awaited report of the Health Reform Dialogue avoided some of the most contentious issues, the agreement does have the kind of far-reaching support lawmakers will need to meet their goal of passing legislation this year.

 

  

     "You can bet I'll be working closely with these groups," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who is trying to find consensus on Capitol Hill.

In their report, the groups said the uninsured should be covered through a mix of expanded government programs and subsidies to purchase private health coverage. They called for savings from making the health care system less wasteful and urged that prevention become the foundation for medical care.

But the five-page proposal was thin on details, starting with how to pay for the plan.

Critics minimized the result. "They've moved the health-care debate forward a few inches," said Richard Kirsch, director of Health Care for America Now, a grass-roots campaign backed by labor.

The 18 groups met for six months. Along the way, two major unions pulled away, but other groups representing seniors, businesses, nurses, drug makers and patients kept talking.

"What the agreement tries to do is achieve a balance for coverage expansion through the two key pillars of health care today," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that stayed in the talks. "One is employer-sponsored private coverage and the other is safety-net coverage." Read More

Screaming Mummies!

Archaeology                                                        

by Mark Rose

  

The entire body is as though agitated from the last movements of agony.

The last convulsions of horrid agony can, after thousands of years, still be seen.

   For well over a century, the contorted features of ancient mummies have led to speculation of untold pain and horrible deaths. The examples quoted above are from the examination of Egyptian mummies more than 120 years ago. Today, similar descriptions can still be found in television programs and academic writings. "Is this the face of a queen? What kind of terrible end did she meet?" and "a terrible head wound, an agonized scream," intones the narrator of "Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen," a 2007 documentary. A photo caption in the scholarly volume Mummies and Death in Egypt (2006) reads "mummy of a boy five years of age, fixed in agony." And the widely covered 2007 discovery of Chachapoya mummies in Peru prompted this newspaper headline "Moment 600 years ago that terror came to Mummies of the Amazon" and copy "Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman's fear of death is all too obvious."

Mummies with their mouths agape or lips pulled back as if they are screaming or writhing in pain are truly startling. Two of the most famous--designated Unknown Woman A and Unknown Man E--are from a cache of royal mummies found in 1881 at Deir el-Bahri in Egypt. When first unwrapped in the late nineteenth century, they provoked the shocked reactions quoted above.

Such mummies, however, are found not just in Egypt but worldwide, in Palermo, Sicily, Guanajuato, Mexico, and, as noted above, in Peru. Some of these bodies were purposefully preserved, though by various methods, while others are natural or, you might say, accidental mummies. What does that say about the supposed frozen-mask-of-agony phenomenon? Are screaming mummies really testaments to horrific deaths? Or are they the result of natural processes, botched or ad hoc mummification jobs, or the depredations of tomb robbers?

Historical representations of the dead offer a clue to answering, why do mummies scream? In particular, Victorian depictions and, later on, film portrayals of the ghost of Jacob Marley come to mind. The deceased business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Marley is often shown with a cloth tied around his head and under his jaw. (You can read "A Christmas Carol" and view John Leech's illustrations at the Gutenberg Project website.)

 

Archaelogy: Drugs, Guns and Dirt

Archaelogy

by Samir S. Patel

  Methamphetamine fuels a new epidemic of looting

     In April 2004, agents from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service surrounded a trailer outside Grants, New Mexico, to execute a search warrant.

A couple of weeks earlier, "N" (who asked that his real name not be used), the BLM case agent for archaeological crime in New Mexico, received a tip that an exceptionally rare pair of Anasazi leggings made of human hair had been stolen from a private home. The leggings had been found on federal land, making their sale, transport, or possession a crime. Officers quickly identified the thief and "flipped" him, that is, they got him to help catch the person to whom he sold the leggings. The agents set up a controlled buy--they had the thief repurchase the leggings using marked bills, and then obtained a search warrant to retrieve the money.

As the agents stormed the trailer, the suspect ran out the back, where the cover team stopped him at gunpoint. "What are you guys here for?" he said. "Are you here for the meth?"

The Buffalo Soldier case, in which old-school treasure hunters crossed a legal line from collecting to looting (see "The Case of the Missing Buffalo Soldier"), was an anomaly, according to N. Most of his cases come from the poverty-stricken trailer parks of Farmington, Bloomfield, and Aztec in the state's archaeology-rich northwest corner. But history buffs aren't his targets: "All I've been dealing with is tweakers," he says, using the slang term for methamphetamine addicts, who loot sites for artifacts they can sell or trade for more drugs. The locus of archaeological crime in the Southwest and across the nation is shifting into the world of drugs and guns. It is a far cry from the traditional, familial world of pot hunters and metal detectorists.

    

Pennsylvania Juvenile Convictions Reversed

Crime & Consequences

     Michael Rubinkam, of the Associated Press, writes that "Pennsylvania's highest court on Thursday overturned hundreds of juvenile convictions issued by a corrupt judge accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send kids to privately owned detention centers." The State Supreme court ruling was influenced also by Pennsylvania's law that "a juvenile may not waive his right to an attorney unless the decision is made 'knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily.'" Many of the juveniles who went before Judge Mark Ciavarella (corrupt) appeared without counsel and the Court decided many "did not knowingly and intelligently waive their right to counsel." Additional cases are still under review.
Our previous post on this scandal is here.

CA Limits On Crime Victims Measure

Crime & Consequences                                                             

Limits on crime victims' measure: Last November, voters approved the restriction of legal rights for parole violators. Don Thompson, of the Associated Press, writes that "U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento ruled that a permanent federal injunction previously agreed to by Gov. Schwarzenegger's administration trumps voters' support for Proposition 9."  Proposition 9 writes victims' rights into the California Constitution. Karlton has concluded, "'a change in state law standing alone is not the type of change in factual circumstance that renders continued enforcement of a consent decree inequitable.'" Administration lawyers are expected to appeal. The order is here.

Most States Lag On Teen Dating Violence Laws

Advocacy groups say many don’t treat assaults with proper seriousness

MSNBC

   

updated 12:01 a.m. ET, Tues., March. 24, 2009

  NEW YORK - Only a handful of states have responded to teen dating violence with laws enabling the youthful victims to obtain protection orders on equal terms with adults, an advocacy group says in a new national survey.

The report on state laws by Break the Cycle, a teen-violence prevention organization that has worked with the Justice Department, gave A grades to only five states. Twelve states got D’s and 11 failed.

Grades were based on various comparisons between the legal treatment of adult victims of domestic violence and teen victims of dating violence. Failure was automatic for states where protective orders are unavailable for minors, or where dating relationships are not explicitly recognized as valid for obtaining such orders. . . . Read More

FORENSICS & INVESTIGATION

True Tv Crime Library

  From the files of True Tv Crime Library:                                        

   Accessory to Murder

Two Los Angeles murders, one week apart, have a strange "signature." A very thorough investigation leads police to a dangerous serial killer.

 

America's Missing

2,300 people are reported missing each day. Reports of missing persons have increased sixfold in the past 25 years, from roughly 150,000 in 1980 to about 900,000 this year. The increase was driven in part by the country's growing population. But the numbers also indicate that law enforcement treats the cases more seriously now, including those of marginalized citizens.

 

 

Steven Avery

DNA evidence exculpates him from one rape/attempted murder, but nails him on the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach, a young photographer who visited him for business reasons. Even worse, he involves his teenage nephew in the horrible crime.

 

 

Bag of Tricks

Popular Hollywood photographer is brutally murdered in his studio in a seedy part of town. Police focus on a suspect who was partying at the studio that night, but he's not the killer. A mysterious backpack eventually leads police to the real murderer.

 

Ballistics

The science of guns and how ballistics have developed over the decades with major cases in which ballistics were critical.

 

Dr. Bill Bass

In her 1994 novel, The Body Farm, Patricia Cornwell introduced readers to a "decay research facility" at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It's actually called the Anthropology Research Facility, shortened to "the Facility," but Cornwell overheard a nickname that cops had adopted, and called it The Body Farm." On any given day," she wrote, "its several wooded acres held dozens of bodies in varying stages of decomposition." Given such a description, one might think this place is imaginary, but it's not. It's quite real.   Read More ...

Skeleton of Cleopatra's Murdered Sister Identified

Fox News

Sunday, March 15, 2009

      Archeologists and forensic experts believe they have identified the skeleton of Cleopatra’s younger sister, murdered more than 2,000 years ago on the orders of the Egyptian queen.

The remains of Princess Arsinöe, put to death in 41BC on the orders of Cleopatra and her Roman lover Mark Antony to eliminate her as a rival, are the first relics of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be identified.

The breakthrough, by an Austrian team, has provided pointers to Cleopatra’s true ethnicity. Scholars have long debated whether she was Greek or Macedonian like her ancestor the original Ptolemy, a Macedonian general who was made ruler of Egypt by Alexander the Great, or whether she was north African.

Evidence obtained by studying the dimensions of Arsinöe’s skull shows she had some of the characteristics of white Europeans, ancient Egyptians and black Africans, indicating that Cleopatra was probably of mixed race, too. They were daughters of Ptolemy XII by different wives.

The results vindicate the theories of Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who has long claimed that the skeleton was Arsinöe. She described the discovery of Arsinöe’s ethnicity as “a real sensation which leads to a new insight on Cleopatra’s family”.

Fellow experts are now convinced. Günther Hölbl, an authority on the Ptolemies, said the identification of the skeleton was “a great discovery”.

The forensic evidence was obtained by a team working under the auspices of the Austrian Archeological Institute, which is set to detail its findings at an anthropological convention in the United States later this month.

Click here to read the full story from the Sunday Times.

Antidepressant Use Tied to Cardiac Death in Women

Medicine Net.com

     By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Women who use antidepressants appear to be at heightened risk for sudden cardiac death, although the exact nature of the link remains unclear, researchers say.

The finding doesn't necessarily mean that antidepressant drugs are dangerous, the researchers said.

"We suspect that their use is a marker for people with worse depression," explained study lead author Dr. William Whang, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. "The elevated risk seems more specific for antidepressant use, but that use may well be a marker of more severe symptoms."

The link between depression and heart trouble is more likely physical than psychological, Whang added. "We found that women who had worse depressive symptoms had higher rates of risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and smoking," he said.

Women with clinical depression were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death, the report said.

The findings were published in the March 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. . . Read More

Judging . . . A Good Job, But Could it Be Safer?

WSJ Blog

By Ashby Jones                                                                                    

     Lots of people would consider being a judge to be a good job. You get to sit up a bit higher than everyone else, slam the gavel, wear a robe and make lawyers be quiet. Plus, everyone stands up when you enter the room.

The dirty little secret, however: Judging can be a dangerous job. Just ask California state judge Cinda Fox, who was stabbed with a jail-made shank by a murder defendant during a break in his trial last week. The murder defendant was shot by a detective and killed. Meanwhile, Fox received cuts on her neck and arm and was released from the hospital after receiving stitches. Court officials in Stockton, Calif., the site of the incident, declined comment, saying the incident is under investigation.

Since then, according to a story in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Daily Journal (link not available), courthouses across the Golden State have turned their attention to safety.

For good reason, it seems. A 2007 study by the Administrative Office of the Courts found 35 percent of California’s judges were threatened, with one-third of those threats considered “imminent.”  Read More

Bombs, Bullets, and Fast Talk

Criminal Justice Online

 

    On March 27, 2009, Conversations with Heroes at the Watering Hole will feature a
discussion Special James Botting, FBI (ret.) the author of Bullets, Bombs, and Fast
Talk: Twenty-Five Years of FBI War Stories.

Program Date: March 27, 2009
Program Time: 2100 hours, Pacific
Topic: Bullets, Bombs, and Fast Talk: Twenty-Five Years of FBI War Stories.
Listen Live:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2009/03/28/Bombs-Bullets-and-Fast-Talk

About the Guest
Special Agent James Botting (ret.) served in the FBI for twenty-five years, sixteen as a crisis/hostage negotiator. He served as the team leader of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) from 1981 to 1995 and a supervisory member of its international Critical Incident Negotiation Team since its inception in 1985 until his retirement. He has personally negotiated numerous hostage/barricade incidents and responded to several high-profile events. He lives in California. James Botting is the author of Bullets, Bombs, and Fast Talk: Twenty-Five Years of FBI War Stories.

According to the book description of Bullets, Bombs, and Fast Talk: Twenty-Five Years of FBI War Stories, “A desperate gunman holds a planeload of innocent passengers hostage. A heavily armed cult leader refuses to leave his compound, threatening mass suicide by a hundred of his brainwashed followers. A neo-Nazi militant in a cabin hideout keeps federal agents at bay with gunfire. A baby disappears; his only trace is an ominous ransom call to his parents. Prisoners riot, threatening the lives of prison officers and hundreds of other inmates. How do you react? What do you do? What do you say? Your words, your actions can save lives--or lose them.”

About the Watering Hole
The Watering Hole is police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life. Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting.

About the Host
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster was a sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years. He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant. He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton; and, has completed his doctoral course work. Raymond E. Foster has been a part-time lecturer at California State University, Fullerton and Fresno; and is currently a Criminal Justice Department chair, faculty advisor and lecturer with the Union Institute and University. He has experience teaching upper division courses in Law Enforcement, public policy, Law Enforcement Technology and leadership. Raymond is an experienced author who has published numerous articles in a wide range of venues including magazines such as Government Technology, Mobile Government, Airborne Law Enforcement Magazine, and Police One. He has appeared on the History Channel and radio programs in the United States and Europe as subject matter expert in technological applications in Law Enforcement.

Listen, call, join us at the Watering Hole:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2009/03/28/Bombs-Bullets-and-Fast-Talk

Program Contact Information
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA
editor@police-writers.com
909.599.7530

Posted by Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA at 1:35 AM

Forensic Psychology Research: Suicide By Cop

All About Forensic Psychology

     Forensic Psychology



(Photo Credit: Volker Neumann)

The phenomenon of suicide by cop (SBC) is attracting an increasing amount of empirical interest within forensic psychology. As a case in point, police and forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie, Ph.D. has just had a paper published entitled "Suicide by Cop Among Officer-Involved Shooting Cases" in the latest edition of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

In defining SBC Dr Mohandie refers to the process by which "a suicidal individual engages in actual or apparently life threatening behavior in an effort to compel law enforcement to use deadly force against them". With this definition in mind, Dr Mohandie and his colleagues analyzed over 700 North American officer-involved shootings which involved reviewing police reports, witness statements, crime scene photographs, videotapes and news reports. Among the authors findings were that 36 percent of the shootings in the sample could be classified as SBC.

For a more detailed summary of the findings, Click Here To read Dr Mohandie's published research abstract. Read More

Teens Arraigned For Elderly Abuse

The Smoking Gun

JANUARY 22--Meet Brianna Broitzman and Ashton Larson. The Minnesota women, both 19, were arraigned yesterday on charges that they sexually humiliated, spanked, groped, and spat on nursing home residents suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia. According to criminal complaints, Broitzman and Larson engaged in a variety of cruel behavior while employed part-time at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Albert Lea, a city in southern Minnesota. Broitzman (top) and Larson are pictured below in mug shots taken yesterday by the Freeborn County Sheriff's Office. Investigators allege that Broitzman poked one resident's breasts, spit into the mouth of another elderly person, and "put her bare butt" in the face of a Good Samaritan resident. For her part, Larson allegedly once "inserted her finger into a resident's rectum" and spit water on another "vulnerable adult." She also has been accused of bathing a male resident in a deliberately rough manner so the elderly man would get an erection. Four other teenagers--who were minors when the nursing home abuse allegedly occurred--have been charged in Juvenile Court. Broitzman, charged with 11 criminal counts, and Larson, charged with 10 counts, face a maximum of a year in jail on each of the misdemeanor raps. (9 pages)

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Update On Nursing Home Rape: Facility Made Errors In Investigation Of Incident

Nursing Home Abuse Blog

Posted on March 7, 2009 by Jonathan Rosenfeld

 

     "As we recently discussed, a 94-year-old resident at Grace Nursing Center was charged with the rape by instrumentality after assaulting another resident at the facility.  Now, details of the matter have been revealed in an Oklahoma Department of Health report. 

The report concludes that the nursing home made errors in how they handled evidence from the assault and failed to act when staff saw the perpetrator acting inappropriately towards other nursing home residents days before the rape occurred.  Among the errors detailed in the report:

• The facility failed to timely notify the victims family after the incident-- the facility waited more than 1 hour, 35 minutes to report the incident to family
• Failing to protect evidence of alleged crime-- the facility washed the victims bed linens and the perpetrators clothing immediately after the incident
• The nursing home administrator and staff physicians were not timely notified after the incident
• The facility failed to take preventative measures with respect to the perpetrator--days before a nurses aide saw the man inappropriately touching other nursing home residents and pulling up their shirts." Read More

 

Arson, Murder, and Intent to Kill

Crime & Consequences                                                                              

March 6, 2009 3:07 PM | Posted by Kent Scheidegger | 0 Comments

 

     "The felony murder rule is a favorite target of academics and defense lawyers. That is the rule that a killing in the course of certain listed felonies is murder without a showing of intent to kill. The criticism is generally muted, if voiced at all, in the specific case of arson, though. This story by Amy Taxin of AP from Riverside, California, shows why.

Large, destructive wildfires are all too common in the arid "Inland Empire" east of L.A. People often die in them. A person who sets one may not specifically intend to kill anyone, but he has to know that is a strong possibility.

A jury convicted an auto mechanic Friday of murdering five federal firefighters by setting a wildfire that overran them as they defended a home in a rural Southern California mountain community.

Raymond Lee Oyler, 38, was found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder. Because he committed multiple murders and did so while committing another felony -- arson -- he could face the death penalty in a trial phase beginning Tuesday.

At one point, it seemed that the Supreme Court was close to requiring an intent to kill for the death penalty in all cases. They did not do that, however, and California law requires no additional showing for the actual killer in felony murder cases. (There are additional requirements for an accomplice.)  In a case such as this, intentionally starting a wildfire with the knowledge of a strong possibility of resulting deaths is just as culpable a mental state as premeditated murder."