Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Matt Curley discussed the Sixth Circuit’s reversal of a conviction against a Kentucky cardiologist accused of defrauding the government and insurance companies by performing medically unnecessary heart procedures. The Sixth Circuit determined that the cardiologist was deprived of his constitutional rights following a decision by the district court that prevented prosecutors from producing exculpatory evidence to the defendant.
As Matt points out in the article, the withheld evidence “is not evidence that’s peripheral to the government’s theory. It goes right to the heart of the government’s case. It runs directly counter to the government’s theory that Dr. Paulus was routinely misstating the results of angiograms performed on his patients. The government recognized that this evidence was required to be produced under Brady, and the district court’s order really … appears to have hamstrung the prosecutors in terms of what to do.”
The full article, “Undisclosed Letter Dooms Doc’s Fraud Conviction at 6th Circ.” was published by Law360 on March 6 and is available online.