Veteran murdered by another patient at the Harry Truman VA Hospital in Columbia, MO

 

VA Suspect Pleads Not Guilty

COLUMBIA – The Sedalia man accused of killing a fellow VA hospital patient pleaded not guilty Thursday. Rudy Perez Jr. is planning to cite mental illness as his main defense

Victim named in Mo. veterans’ hospital attack

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A 33-year-old Sedalia man suspected of killing a veterans’ hospital patient in Columbia was released from jail two days earlier after prosecutors declined to charge him with assaulting a neighbor….

Mo. VA patient’s killing under investigation

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) A patient is suspected of fatally attacking another patient at the Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital in Columbia.

Hospital spokesman Stephen Gaither says the attack happened Friday night in an in-patient unit.

He says the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs handed the case over to Columbia police on Saturday.

More at http://www2.wnct.com/news/2013/feb/02/mo-va-patients-killing-under-investigation-ar-2991859/

 

Tampa Bay VA  ENT surgeon arrested for prescription fraud!

Richard L. Carpenter an ears nose and throat surgeon has been arrested in Tampa, Florida for illegally obtaining prescription medicine. So far the VA appears not to have issued any explanation for this incident and not much information is available about Carpenter. According to the American Board of Otolaryngology website,  he was certified as an ear, nose and throat surgeon in 1985. He was certified prior to mandatory recertification and has not been recertified since 1985. Until recently he practiced in Michigan as part of Mid-Michigan Ear, Nose & Throat PC. He is pictured in their current group picture, but his profile has been removed.

http://www.mment.org/images/docs.jpg

 

Mid-Michigan Ear, Nose & Throat PC.is the areas leading ENT practice with six experts treating patients for the treatment of Ear, Nose & Throat disorders, allergy therapy and learning disorder in adults and kids.

Director of Hines, Illinois VA sentenced to 5 years & ordered to pay $400,000 for defrauding the the VA prescriptioin program.

 

— The former associate director of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines, Ill., his wife and their temporary staffing company were sentenced today for their participation in a conspiracy to defraud the VA and the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Department of Justice announced.

— The former associate director of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines, Ill., his wife and their temporary staffing company were sentenced today for their participation in a conspiracy to defraud the VA and the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Department of Justice announced.

 

— The former associate director of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines, Ill., his wife and their temporary staffing company were sentenced today for their participation in a conspiracy to defraud the VA and the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Department of Justice announced.

1. Defendant will plead guilty because he agrees that he is in fact guilty of the charges set forth in the Information. In pleading guilty, Defendant admits the following facts described below relating to the charges, and Defendant agrees that those facts are true, and that they establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as to the charges. Defendant also admits that the additional facts set forth herein constitute relevant conduct under Section 1B1.3 of the Sentencing Guidelines. The parties agree that this factual basis does not include all relevant conduct that may be considered by the Court for sentencing purposes.

 

SPECIFIC OFFENSE CHARACTERISTICS

15. The parties acknowledge and understand that the government will recommend to the sentencing Court that, under Guideline § 2B1.1(b)(1)(J), an additional 18 level increase would apply to the Defendant, pursuant to Application Note 3(F)(ii) to § 2B1.1, because the underlying criminal scheme involved a combined gain and loss of more than $2,500,000 but less than $7,000,000. The Defendant does not agree with the government’s calculations. The parties expressly agree and consent to have the sentencing court find the facts pertinent to, and to determine, the applicable amount.

32. William J. Brandt’s statement is as follows:

 

I was the Associate Director of the Hines VA CMOP from 1996 through April 2007. While Associate Director, I and others participated in an on-going scheme whereby I initially recommended that Company A be chosen to supply temporary pharmacist services to the CMOP starting in or about May 2000. At the time I made this recommendation, I knew, as did my direct supervisor, that Company A would subcontract this work to a new company, PRONTO STAFFING, Inc. (“PRONTO”) that I and my spouse had incorporated, and which I placed under my wife’s sole ownership to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Based in part on my recommendation, Company A was awarded a purchase order to supply temporary pharmacists to the Hines CMOP on or about June 9, 2000. The Hines CMOP entered into several successive purchase orders with Company A for temporary pharmacists. In several instances I personally recommended that either the total hours awarded, or the pay rates, be increased for these temporary pharmacist services. Estimating the need for temporary pharmacists, as well as advising my supervisor of appropriate rates of pay for such pharmacists, were part of my official duties as the Associate Director of the Hines CMOP. In every instance, Company A, per our prior agreement, subcontracted the work back to PRONTO up through the date that the grand jury’s investigation became known to myself and others on April 17, 2007. The gross dollar amount of purchase orders awarded to Company A to provide temporary pharmacists to the CMOP was approximately $8 million.

My spouse and I agreed with the vice-president and president of Company A (“Individuals A and B”) that for the Hines CMOP business, profits would be split 50% — 50% between Company A and PRONTO.

Starting in or about 2002, these profits were paid out to my wife in the form of bi-annual bonus amounts, and then later quarterly adjustment amounts that represented the difference between Hines CMOP pharmacist-related billing totals, minus expenses, salaries, and taxes. I know this because I reviewed these financial numbers on an on-going basis with Individual B and another key employee within Company A. From time to time, myself and Individual B agreed to increase my wife’s salary or to otherwise adjust the timing and amounts of certain additional payments made to her. Between 2002 and 2007, my wife received remuneration in the hundreds of thousands of dollars based on the business relationship we had with Company A. Additional profits, discussed below, from business obtained in the name of my wife’s company, PRONTO, by Company A outside of the Hines CMOP, were transferred into our joint banking account, or other accounts held in my wife’s or PRONTO’s name. As a result of the scheme described above PRONTO, myself, and my wife received proceeds in excess of $1,000,000.

During this time, I was the person who interviewed and hired the pharmacists that were employed by PRONTO and who worked at the Hines CMOP. My wife did not oversee these employees while they worked at the CMOP, nor did she deal with the majority of employment decisions that affected these workers on a day-to-day basis. My involvement with, and control over, the Hines temporary pharmacists was well known to Individuals A and B and other employees at Company A. One example of my involvement with the Hines CMOP business took place in 2004. I suggested to the Individuals A and B and C (an operations manager at Company A) that the billing rate that their company charged the VA for certain pharmacists who were subcontracted to PRONTO should be increased. I later conspired with Individual B to submit a false and misleading request that appeared as if I, acting on behalf of the Hines CMOP in my official capacity, were seeking a price quote for a new pharmacist position — the “pharmacist specialists” — when, in fact, as I then well knew the work performed by the pharmacists in this new position would be no different from the work that they had been performing. Prior to sending this false request, I had agreed in private with Individual B that his company should charge the VA a rate of $69/hour instead of the $57/hour that it had previously been charging. This discussion, and the mutual decision to seek an increase in the billing rate to the VA, took place between myself, Individuals A and B and C. This billing increase did not apply to all pharmacists.

Shortly after the first purchase order for temporary pharmacists at the Hines CMOP was awarded to Company A, Individual A suggested to myself and my spouse that we obtain certain Small Business Administration (“SBA”) certifications for PRONTO. Individual A explained that certain government agency contracts were designated as “set-aside” contracts where competition was limited or non-existent and, therefore, obtaining SBA certifications would be a great advantage in bidding on and obtaining these government agency contracts outside of the Hines CMOP. Additionally, Individual A assured me that he could prepare these bids and that Company A could do most of the work once my wife obtained the necessary SBA certifications for PRONTO.

In or about September 2000, I began to prepare a Small Disadvantaged Business (“SDB”) application which was signed by my spouse, ESPERANZA A. BRANDT, and then submitted to the SBA and approved on or about December 20, 2000. Individuals A and B subsequently explained that obtaining SBA Section 8(a) Program certification would confer an even greater bidding advantage upon PRONTO than simply having the SBA’s SDB certification. I prepared, and my wife reviewed and signed, a Section 8(a) Program application for PRONTO that was submitted to the SBA and subsequently approved by the SBA on or about October 10, 2002. Certain statements and representations made in that Section 8(a) Program application were false; their purpose was to exaggerate my wife’s involvement and control over PRONTO so as to convince the SBA that Section 8(a) Program certification was appropriate for PRONTO.

It was understood and agreed upon between myself, my wife, and Individuals A and B, that employees from Company A would search for government, SBA set-aside, contracts and, if the opportunity looked promising, Company A would submit a bid in the name of my wife’s company, PRONTO. Oftentimes, bids were submitted and won without our immediate knowledge. I did not review the bids prior to their submission. Likewise, I was not involved with the pricing, margin, or the decision to bid or not bid upon these government contracts. I knew, however, that Company A was actively looking at set-aside bid opportunities even though Company A was itself neither minority-owned, nor woman-owned, nor a Small Disadvantaged Business by this point in time. For these bids outside of the Hines CMOP, Company A performed substantially all of the work.

In or about November 2001, Individuals A and B suggested that for any bid won in the name of my wife’s company, PRONTO, but which was bid on and managed by Company A, the profits should be split as follows: 40% to Company A; 40% to an individual who was hired by Company A to find lucrative set-aside bids; and 20% to PRONTO. This profit split was apart from that in effect for the Hines CMOP temporary pharmacists.

Despite my involvement with, and oversight of, the PRONTO temporary pharmacists at the Hines CMOP, I represented to the SBA on or about March 26, 2001, that I had no involvement with my wife’s company. This statement was false and I knowingly made it for the purpose of enabling PRONTO to achieve Section 8(a) Program certification. Likewise, at a later point in time, in or about September 2002, I drafted a communication to the VA’s legal counsel which purposely concealed my role within the business affairs of PRONTO as pertained to the Hines CMOP. I made those misrepresentations in order to mislead the VA’s counsel and to alleviate any conflict of interest concerns on the VA’s part so that I and my wife could continue to profit from the temporary pharmacists working at the Hines CMOP.

Beginning in or about November 2001 and continuing through 2003, Individuals A and B encouraged my wife to seek approval on behalf of PRONTO from the SBA to enter into what was known as a Mentor-Protege agreement with Company A. Individuals A and B had explained that this step was necessary and would help PRONTO’s overall business opportunities. Individual A sent a prepared Mentor-Protege agreement to me, and my wife signed it and sent the paperwork to the SBA. I did not write the Mentor-Protege agreement. The SBA approved the Mentor-Protege agreement between PRONTO and Company A in or about October 2003. This agreement represented that Company A would train my wife in several aspects concerning how to run PRONTO as a successful business. I know, however, that Company A did not train my wife, and Individuals A and B, and other employees at their company did not transfer the skills listed in their Mentor-Protege agreement that the SBA eventually approved, nor did they ever attempt to do so.

I realized later that this Mentor-Protege agreement was an “umbrella” or a cover which could be used by Company A if government contracting agents and personnel ever questioned the legality of Company A obtaining and managing large contracts in the name of PRONTO, while my wife — who was nominally the sole owner, president, secretary, and treasurer of PRONTO — had little to no involvement with these important business decisions.

From the inception of the pharmacist subcontracting scheme in early 2000 and continuing through all of the SBA certifications up through at least April 2007, I used and caused others to use interstate wire transmissions in furtherance of these schemes. Specifically, my primary means of communicating with Individuals A and B and C, and their employees, were inter-state e-mail messages, phone calls, and fax transmissions. I sent and received interstate wire transmissions which related to aspects of my wife’s business, PRONTO, which was based in Illinois, to Individuals A and B and C, whose business headquarters were located in Monroe, Georgia. Typically, I would e-mail, fax, or call Individuals A and B and C from my home in Evergreen Park, Illinois, or from the Hines CMOP.

Additionally, I knew that the proceeds from this on-going scheme were wired from either Company A’s bank accounts, or another closely-related entity’s bank accounts, which was also located in Georgia, to various banking accounts in Chicago, Illinois, that were held by wife, PRONTO, or jointly owned by myself and my wife.

33. The preceding statement is a summary, made for the purpose of providing the Court with a factual basis for my guilty plea. It does not set forth all of the facts known to me concerning the criminal activity in which I, my spouse, and certain former owners and employees of Company A engaged. I make this statement knowingly and voluntarily because I am in fact guilty of the crimes charged.

 

34. The government has no knowledge, as of this date, that the above-described conduct had an adverse health­related impact or effect.

 William J. Brandt the former associate director of the  Hines Chicago VA pleads guilt to wire fraud

William J. Brandt, the associate director of the VA facility from 1996 until April 2007, his wife, Esperanza A. Brandt, and Pronto Staffing Inc. were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Chicago by Judge Milton I. Shadur. William Brandt was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison and Esperanza Brandt was sentenced to serve 24 months of probation. The Brandts and Pronto Staffing were also sentenced to pay $400,000 in restitution jointly and severally.

 

On May 9, 2009, the Brandts and Pronto each pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. William Brandt also pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud, which deprived the VA and the public of his honest services. The Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines, one of seven regional VA mail-out pharmacies, currently processes and sends out more than 90,000 prescriptions each day to veterans.

William J. Brandt, the associate director of the VA facility from 1996 until April 2007, his wife, Esperanza A. Brandt, and Pronto Staffing Inc. were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Chicago by Judge Milton I. Shadur. William Brandt was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison and Esperanza Brandt was sentenced to serve 24 months of probation. The Brandts and Pronto Staffing were also sentenced to pay $400,000 in restitution jointly and severally.

 

On May 9, 2009, the Brandts and Pronto each pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. William Brandt also pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud, which deprived the VA and the public of his honest services. The Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines, one of seven regional VA mail-out pharmacies, currently processes and sends out more than 90,000 prescriptions each day to veterans.

facility from 1996 until April 2007, his wife, Esperanza A. Brandt, and Pronto Staffing Inc. were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Chicago by Judge Milton I. Shadur. William Brandt was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison and Esperanza Brandt was sentenced to serve 24 months of probation. The Brandts and Pronto Staffing were also sentenced to pay $400,000 in restitution jointly and severally.

On May 9, 2009, the Brandts and Pronto each pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. William Brandt also pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud, which deprived the VA and the public of his honest services. The Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines, one of seven regional VA mail-out pharmacies, currently processes and sends out more than 90,000 prescriptions each day to veterans.

Former Director of Hinds Chicago Joel M. Gostolmelsky, VAMC Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy & Accepting Payments for Awarding VA Contracts

On June 30, 2008, Joel M. Gostolmelsky, the former director of the VA facility, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to accepting illegal gratuities in connection with awarding staffing and supply contracts, including contracts for temporary pharmacists. On Oct. 7, 2010, Gostolmelsky was sentenced to serve five months in prison and to pay $49,484 in restitution.

VA Employees charged for drug distribution at the Riveria FL VA

A seven month undercover investigation has led to the arrest of over a dozen people who are now accused of running a prescription drug operation out of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach

A former employee at the VA Hospital in Clarksburg could appear in federal magistrate court after bringing a firearm to work.

The hospital said the employee brought the weapon to work in a bag by accident and dropped it, discharging one bullet into a nearby cabinet.No one was hurt.The hospital said the incident happened on February 27 and that three other employees were in the room when it happened.It’s against the law to have a firearm on federal property.

That employee has since retired.

former-va-hospital-employee-to-possibly-appear-in-federal-magistrate-court

 FORMER PODIATRISTS AT SALEM VETERAN AFFAIRS MEDICAL CENTER INDICTED IN CORRUPTION SCHEME.

A federal grand jury in the Western District of Virginia returned a twenty-count criminal indictment on corruption charges against three doctors who were formerly employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, Virginia (VAMC Salem), the Justice Department announced today.

Doctors Benedict A. Profera, Daniel D. Semko, and Suzanne Haritatos Semko (“Haritatos”) were charged with wire fraud, bribery and theft in connection with their conduct while employed at the VAMC Salem.

Profera served as head of the Podiatric Department and its residency program at the VAMC Salem. Semko and Haritatos were residents in the one-year program for the 1997-98 term and worked under Profera’s supervision.

The indictment alleges that from March 1997 through March 1999, the three defendants engaged in a scheme to defraud the VAMC Salem and the United States by allowing Semko to receive credit and a salary for participating in the residency program when he was rarely present. Rather, according to the indictment, Semko spent virtually all his time running his private practice in Indiana and did not meet the requirements of the program.

 WYOMING VA Nurse Sentenced  for obtaining substances by fraud while employed as a nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Sheridan, Wyoming

Joseph A. Iverson, 35, of Sheridan, Wyoming, was sentenced by Federal District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson on May 29, 2012, for obtaining substances by fraud while employed as a nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Sheridan, Wyoming. Iverson was arrested in Casper, Wyoming. He received two years of supervised probation and was ordered to pay a $100.00 fine. This case was investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

USDOJ: US Attorney’s Office – DISTRICT OF WYOMING.

VA doctor accused of fondling men

Author:	JAMES HARPER
Date:	Nov 25, 1999

Doctor at VA cited for pot

Author:	WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Date:	Dec 16, 1999
Start Page:	1.B
Text Word Count:	575

 

A Fayetteville Veterans Affairs Medical Center employee is charged with stealing several computers from his workplace, but a spokeswoman says no patient data was compromised.

Doneral Eugene Reed Sr., 54, of the 800 block of East Orange Street, is charged with six counts each of felony larceny, possessing stolen property and obtaining property by false pretenses. His bail was set at $24,000.

Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies say Reed was caught after stealing a Panasonic Toughbook worth more than $2,500 on May 18. He later sold it for $450.

Investigators then learned that Reed had taken at least five other computers from the hospital, in each case removing the serial numbers and selling the computers at pawn shops. Deputies have recovered six computers Reed is alleged to have sold, sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said.

VA hospital spokeswoman Robin DeMark said a total of 12 computers had been stolen from the hospital. The other six have not been found, Tanna said. The laptops were new, and no sensitive information was on them, she said.

Reed was a compensated work therapy employee for the hospital. He “is no longer associated with the hospital,” DeMark said Tuesday. She said she did not know whether he had been fired or resigned.

 Philadelphia VA Employee Charged  With Illegal Selling of Body Parts

DOCTOR CHARGED WITH DEALING IN HUMAN REMAINS

AP , Associated Press

Oct. 16, 1986 5:11 AM ET

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ An ear, nose and throat doctor and four pathologist’s assistants have been charged in an alleged scheme to sell human heads and other body parts to research institutions for a profit.

The five surrendered Wednesday, said District Attorney Ron Castille.

The investigation began in August when United Parcel Service workers in Louisville, Ky., found five heads in a leaky box marked aerosol. The box, bound for the Colorado Otologic Research Center in Denver, bore the doctor’s return address.

Castille said the five face charges of abuse of corpse, theft, conspiracy and receiving stolen property, and of violating the state health code.

Dr. Martin Spector, 70, is accused of buying the body parts from the four pathologist’s assistants – two from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, one from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and one from a Veterans Administration Hospital in west Philadelphia – who took the parts from corpses that had been donated to science or were unclaimed by relatives, Castille said.

The university said it fired medical school morgue employees Lynwood Summers, 56, of Franklinville, N.J., and Wilbert Richardson, 58, of Chester, on Wednesday.

The VA Hospital said Reuben Whitehead, 53, of Philadelphia, will be dismissed next week. Leonard Stephens, 60, of Philadelphia, was relieved of his duties at Jefferson on Wednesday pending the outcome of the case, a hospital spokeswoman said.

”We are deeply disturbed that university procedures and common rules of human dignity have been violated,” said Dr. Lourence Earley, senior associate dean of the Penn Medical School. ”Additional safeguards have been instituted, and all our procedures are under thorough review.”

Detective Capt. Robert Grasso, chief of homicide, said investigators believe Spector paid $50 to $100 a head and ”probably received payment of $200 each. We have no idea how many parts were shipped.”

Grasso said that from 1983 until the operation was discovered, Spector dealt exclusively with the Denver center, ”but we have other evidence going back to 1976 that some parts went to other institutions.”

The Colorado center, which provides postgraduate study for doctors in microsurgical specialties, has acknowledged it often received body parts from private sources through UPS and other delivery services.

Penn said Wednesday its medical center is seeking to have Spector stripped of his hospital admitting privileges, which have been suspended since Aug. 18.

State law forbids the separation of body parts and their shipment out of the state. The charges carry up to 7 1/2 years in prison and large fines, authorities said.

… Reuben Whitehead, 53, of the 5700 block of Haddington Street, an autopsy assistant at the Veterans Administration hospital in West Philadelphia. (Dieners prepare and clean up bodies during autopsies and get them ready for research.)

Summers, Richardson, Whitehead and Stephan surrendered yesterday afternoon, police said. The five were expected to be arraigned either late last night or early this morning.

According to a police source, Spector received $14,125.84 between October 1982 and July 1986 for human body parts, including heads, ears and arms, that he shipped to the Colorado Otologic Research Center in Denver.

Summers, described as the one who delivered most of the human parts to Spector’s office, received about $2,000, all in cash, from the doctor during the same period, the sources said. Police could not document how much the other men received.

All five were charged with conspiracy, theft, receiving stolen property and abuse of corpse – all criminal offenses – and a violation of the Pennsylvania Health Code, specifically transporting body parts out of state without permission.

All the bodies involved had been donated for research, investigators said.

Summers, Richardson and Whitehead have been fired, their institutions said yesterday. A spokeswoman for Jefferson said Stephan was “relieved of his duties,” but she would not elaborate.

Virgil Renzulli, a Penn spokesman, also said administrators at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center had made a “strong recommendation” to the faculty medical board that Spector’s hospital admitting privileges – which he has held for decades – be terminated. They have been suspended since Aug. 18, soon after reports linking him to the shipment of body parts first surfaced.

Detective Capt. Robert Grasso, head of the Police Department’s homicide unit, said Spector admitted that he had supplied researchers with body parts since 1976. Investigators, however, could not find any documentation for his activity before 1982, or for transactions with any facilities besides the one in Colorado. Spector would not cooperate in the investigation, police said.

Grasso said the investigation was continuing and that more morgue workers at other institutions might be involved.

The investigation began here in August, when reports surfaced that human heads had been found in July in a parcel marked “aerosol” in the UPS shipment center in Louisville. The parcel was addressed to the Colorado Otologic Research Center in Denver, and had Spector’s office as a return address.

Police got warrants to search Spector’s office, where they confiscated numerous records and eight pairs of frozen human ears. They also subpoenaed records from the research center.

Dr. Irving Kaufman Arenberg, an ear surgeon and president of the Colorado facility, has told police the center began dealing with Spector in October 1982. He said Spector contacted him after the center sent out 10,000 brochures to doctors in the field listing courses at the center. He said Spector offered to provide body parts for the courses.

Investigators said Arenberg told them he agreed to purchase the parts, but said he did not know where Spector got them. He indicated that Spector had said once that he obtained them from “his diener.”

Police found various bills from Spector to the center. One, dated Sept. 4, 1986, charged $884 for 10 arms. A March 6, 1985, bill charged $884.74. for 411 ears.

Summers has worked in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

morgue for 25 years and Richardson at Penn’s medical school for 11 years, according to police. Whitehead worked at the VA for more than 30 years and Stephan has been at Jefferson since 1969.

Richardson, in describing his job to police, said that when a cadaver was no longer useful for research, it was his duty to cremate it, sources said. He would also decide whether newly received bodies were usable for research.

Police sources said Richardson told investigators that he knew Summers and that he gave him human heads before cremating the headless bodies.

All the cadavers donated to medical schools in the state go through the Humanity Gifts Registry, a quasi-state agency that has strict rules regarding the use and disposition of bodies. Among those rules are that the donated body parts of the same person be kept together and be buried or cremated together “in a dignified manner.”

Cheryl Blumenthal, director of the registry, said Spector was not authorized to possess or ship any human body parts.

Thomas Williams, director of the VA Medical Center, said Whitehead was given a 30-day notice of termination last month after an internal hospital investigation concluded that he had violated hospital procedures. Williams said the investigation “was able to establish conclusively that no external body parts were removed from any of our veteran patients.”

Philadelphia VA Employee ordered to stand trial in connection with selling veterans body parts from corpses

VA psychiatrist charged in road-rage gunfire

A Veterans Administration psychiatrist charged with firing gunshots at a van carrying children told the officer who stopped him that it was an act of road rage, authorities said.

Dr. Alex Abelardo Fider, a psychiatrist at the VA hospital in Murfreesboro, was charged with aggravated assault. He was released on a $10,000 bond Monday.

A Nissan Quest carrying an adult and two 11-year-olds was exiting Interstate 24 on Sunday when three shots were fired from a Dodge Caravan, Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Julie Oaks said. At least one round hit the Nissan, she added.

She said the Nissan’s driver returned to the interstate to follow the Dodge and called the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The trooper who stopped the Dodge near Kimball reported finding three spent shell casings in the glove box and a pistol under the passenger seat, Oaks said.

The arrest report said Fider, a passenger in the van, told the trooper the shooting was an act of road rage, Oaks said.

Doctor cited for pot at VA hospital

Thursday, September 17, 1998

Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG – The attending physician for a patient whose death is under investigation has been charged with possession of marijuana on the grounds of a veteran’s hospital.

Dr. George E. Robinson was seen exchanging $50 for an envelope containing 12 grams of marijuana about 4 p.m. on Thursday at Bay Pines Medical Center in St. Petersburg, according to Pinellas County Sheriff’s Deputy Norman C. Cramer.

Robinson was issued a misdemeanor citation calling for a court appearance Oct. 2.

He was the attending doctor for U.S. Army veteran Herbert C. Fuchs, 44, who died Sept. 3 at Bay Pines following surgery at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, the St. Petersburg Times reported Wednesday.

The attending physician is responsible for care given a patient, even though other doctors and nurses may participate in the care.

Fuchs’ mother, Sophia Fuchs-Johnson, complained bitterly about her son’s care during his brief stay at Bay Pines. In the hours before his death, he turned cold and purple and had extreme difficulty breathing, she told the newspaper. She said she sought help from doctors and nurses and was told her son was fine.

Dr. Jeffrey Kuch, chief of staff at Bay Pines, said Robinson has been placed on leave. But citing provisions of the U.S.Privacy Act, he would not say whether the action was taken because of the marijuana citation or the investigation ofFuchs’ death.

Fuchs, a veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, a pilot, and immediate past vice commander of the U.S. Coast
Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 73 went to the Tampa VA Center in mid-August for heart surgery after problems with an aortic
valve. He was a diabetic. A heart murmur was discovered. A pacemaker was installed following the Aug. 19 surgery.

He returned to Bay Pines Sept. 1 and died two days later. A preliminary autopsy finding was that he died of pericardial
tamponade, the collection of fluids inside a thin sheath around the heart. Kuch said the fluids had not yet been
identified.

VA attendants kill patient at VA hospital

Investigations will examine care at both hospitals “from start to finish,” Kuch said.

 With all the real crime at the VA, the VA still has time to charge a veteran with stealing a piece of strawberry shortcake.

WHIPPED CREAM ON HIS LIPS GAVE HIM AWAY

AP, Associated Press