New Mexico
Former college basketball players settle lawsuit
The former New Mexico State basketball players who filed a lawsuit alleging they were ganged up on and sexually assaulted by teammates have settled the case, one of their attorneys said Tuesday.
Aggie players Deuce Benjamin and Shak Odunewu filed the lawsuit in April, alleging three players on the team assaulted them, while coaches who knew of the assaults did nothing about it.
Attorney Joleen Youngers said all defendants — the players, coaches and the New Mexico State board of regents — were part of the settlement, and that she could not release the terms. A school spokesman said terms would be released on the state’s open-records website “soon.”
“The important thing was getting a settlement that reasonably compensates them and allows them to put this matter behind them, and helps them to move on,” Youngers said. “Because a lawsuit like this can end up being a second victimization, where they have to go through months, if not years, of dealing with all the issues.”
Separately, the state attorney general has been looking into potential criminal charges in the case.
The lawsuit came two months after the Aggies abruptly canceled the rest of their 2022-23 basketball season when Deuce Benjamin, a freshman guard, brought his allegations to campus police. The school characterized them as hazing allegations.
In an interview with The Associated Press shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Benjamin said he had lost his respect for people in the aftermath of what had happened.
“Pretty much just a lot of anger,” Benjamin said. “I can’t put my trust in people, and I’ve just come to despise people, really.”
The AP normally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Benjamin and Odunewu had both agreed to let their names be used in both the lawsuit and subsequent media interviews, including the one with AP. Benjamin’s father, former Aggies star William Benjamin, joined his son and Odunewu as plaintiffs.
“It took so much courage for them to stand up and voice their name, to say this happened and it was wrong, and to demand accountability, and they did it,” Youngers said.
Hawaii
Couple arrested in fatal fentanyl overdoses at oceanfront hotel
HONOLULU (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man and woman they say supplied the fentanyl in a mass overdose at an oceanfront Hawaii hotel that left two people dead.
Avery Garrard and Keina Drageset were taken into custody last Friday and are charged with conspiring with each other and others to distribute fentanyl that resulted in death, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.
Honolulu police and paramedics found five people who were either unresponsive or needed medical help at the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort on June 4. One man was pronounced dead at the scene, and another later died at a hospital.
As of Tuesday, the Honolulu medical examiner’s office hadn’t determined a cause of death for either man.
The three who survived told Drug Enforcement Administration investigators they had believed the drugs, which were acquired by one of the dead men, were cocaine or MDMA.
“All three did not know the substance possibly contained fentanyl,” a DEA agent wrote in the complaint.
Two people the document called sources who have not yet been charged but are cooperating with law enforcement identified Garrard and Drageset as the suppliers of the fentanyl.
A search of the couple’s apartment last week in a Honolulu luxury building turned up approximately $100,000 in cash in a safe, along with drugs that tested positive for fentanyl, the complaint said. They were arrested later that day in a white Tesla.
Neal Kugiya, an attorney representing Garrard, declined to comment before an initial appearance for the pair scheduled for Tuesday.
Jacquelyn Esser, Drageset’s attorney, also declined to comment.
Fentanyl is an opioid many times more powerful than heroin and typically is prescribed to treat severe pain. It frequently appears as an illegal street drug mixed with other substances.
Experts say the growing prevalence of fentanyl in the illicit drug supply is a top driver of the increasing number of overdose deaths in the U.S.
Outrigger worked closely with law enforcement to provide any assistance needed, spokesperson Monica Salter said, adding that the resort “committed to maintaining the highest level of safety and security measures” for guests and hosts.
New York
Lawsuit accuses nursing homes of misusing $83M, mistreating clients
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The operators of four nursing homes in New York misused more than $83 million in government funds and neglected residents, including some who were malnourished or were left to sit for hours in their own urine and feces, state Attorney General Letitia James said in a lawsuit Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan accuses owners and operators of Centers Health Care of using Medicaid and Medicare funds to enrich themselves, their relatives and associates instead of for the care of the residents. James claims understaffing at the homes contributed to neglect.
“Residents were left alone and on their own, often unaided and unsupervised, leading to dangerous falls and broken bones. Residents lived in squalor, surrounded by neglected food trays, vermin and the smell of human waste,” James said at a news conference held with residents’ relatives.
The company denied the allegations.
“Centers Health Care prides itself on its commitment to patient care. Centers denies the New York Attorney General’s allegations wholeheartedly and attempted to resolve this matter out of court. We will fight these spurious claims with the facts on our side,” spokesperson Jeff Jacomowitz said in an emailed statement.
The four homes in the lawsuit are Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in the Bronx, the Holliswood Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Queens, the Martine Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Westchester County and the Buffalo Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing.
The suit claims residents’ meals were late, clothes were stolen and call bells were unanswered. One resident with severe bed sores developed sepsis, was hospitalized and died. Another resident did not have her colostomy bag attached. Others suffered from dehydration.
“My uncle was found sitting in a filthy room, unbathed and only wearing an adult diaper. This wasn’t my uncle. George was a veteran. He was an artist.” said Cynthia Vega, recalling her late Uncle George’s stay at Holliswood.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the homes failed to control its spread. More than 400 residents across the four homes died in 2020, according to James.
The lawsuit names Centers Health Care co-owners Kenneth Rozenberg and Daryl Hagler and a series of businesses owned by them, family members or business associates.
James seeks, among other things, a return of the money and a ban on new admissions until staffing is increased at the homes.
Florida
Inmate sentenced for threatening to murder judge
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida state prison inmate already serving a three-decade sentence will serve an additional one year and three months in federal prison for threatening to kill a federal judge and his family.
Curtis Brown, 35, was sentenced Tuesday in Jacksonville federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in December to threatening to murder a federal judge in retaliation for performing his official duties and to mailing a threatening letter.
According to court documents, Brown was serving a sentence for drug trafficking in the Florida State Prison in Raiford in November 2021 when he sent a handwritten letter to a federal judge’s chambers. The letter stated that the judge’s “recent refusal to grant warranted relief” gave Brown no other choice but to use his federal stimulus money to pay for someone to kill the judge.
The letter stated that if Brown could not get to the judge in time, then Brown would settle for a member of the judge’s family, prosecutors said. The letter was signed by Brown, and beneath his signature was a statement that the letter better stay between them, or it would get worse.
Brown was sentenced to prison in 2006 after being convicted of multiple drug charges. Florida Department of Corrections records show that he was supposed to be released from state prison in 2034.
Washington
Dozens charged with health care fraud schemes
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged dozens of people in several health care fraud and prescription drug schemes, including one totaling $1.9 billion and a doctor accused of ordering fake ankle braces for a patient whose leg had been amputated, officials said Wednesday.
The scheme involving the submission of nearly $2 billion in bogus claims is one of the largest health care fraud cases ever brought by the Justice Department, the agency said. It’s one of several announced as part of a crackdown in states around the country.
In total, 78 people in 16 states were charged in a series of separate cases, which also included an alleged scheme to buy back HIV medication from patients and then resell the pills.
The defendants targeted vulnerable people and used the money they made to buy exotic cars, jewelry and yachts, federal investigators said. The federal government seized millions of dollars in cash, automobiles and real estate as part of the crackdown.
“The Justice Department will find and bring to justice criminals who seek to defraud Americans and steal from taxpayer-funded programs,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
In one case filed in the Southern District of Florida, investigators said they found nearly $2 billion in fraudulent telemedicine claims submitted to government-funded coverage programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which mainly cover people age 65 and over and those with low incomes, respectively. No attorneys were listed Wednesday for the three men charged in connection with the online platform DMERx, and a message left with a parent company was not immediately returned.
Those cases involved templates for fake doctor orders for braces and pain creams that were used in exchange for kickbacks and bribes, investigators said.
In another telemedicine fraud case, prosecutors say a Washington state doctor, David Antonio Becerril, signed more than 2,800 fraudulent orders, including ankle braces for a patient whose leg had been amputated years before. He’s accused of taking less than 40 seconds to review and sign each order. One of his attorneys, William Portanova, declined to comment.
In some cases, computer software produced fake doctor’s orders and patients were never examined or had only a brief conversation with the physician, said Omar Perez Aybar, special agent in charge of the Miami regional office for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general.
“There were providers and patients all across the country,” he said.
In another case, a Brooklyn man is accused of working with other people to buy more than $150 million in prescription drugs, including HIV medications from suppliers who bought back medication from patients. Steven Diamantstein is accused of re-labeling the drugs for sale. His defense attorney, Zach Intrater, said Diamantstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges and “looks forward to contesting them in court.”
The investigation involved coordination among several agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and state Medicaid fraud units, Perez Aybar said.
