Heidary v. Superior Court of Riverside Cnty.
| Decision Date | 14 August 2018 |
| Docket Number | E068607 |
| Citation | 236 Cal.Rptr.3d 718,26 Cal.App.5th 110 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Peyman HEIDARY, Petitioner, v. The SUPERIOR COURT of Riverside County, Respondent; The People, Real Party in Interest. |
Khouri Law Firm, Michael J. Khouri, Irvine, and Jennifer W. Gatewood, Costa Mesa, for Petitioner.
No appearance for Respondent.
Michael A. Hestrin, District Attorney, Elaina Gambera Bentley, Assistant District Attorney, Kelli Catlett, Emily R. Hanks, and Erika L. Mulhere, Deputy District Attorneys, for Real Party in Interest.
In this matter, petitioner Peyman Heidary challenges the trial court’s denial of his motion to set aside the indictment pursuant to Penal Code 1 section 995, subdivision (a)(1)(B). We have determined that the petition must be denied.
Petitioner Peyman Heidary (Heidary) allegedly owned and oversaw a network of medical clinics to generate fraudulent billings to workers’ compensation and insurance carriers. A non-attorney, he also allegedly controlled the day-to-day operations of various law firms, including California Injury Lawyers (collectively, the law firm.). He allegedly controlled or directed hiring and firing, legal decision making, and income flow to and from the law firm. Codefendants (and petitioners in a related writ case discussed below) Abramowitz, a lawyer, and Solis allegedly assisted Heidary in these operations.
A former chiropractor, Heidary also allegedly formed and controlled several health clinics in Southern California. Each was staffed by front and back room support staff for scheduling and basic medical services (regardless of qualifications). Included were chiropractors operating as primary treating physicians, providing blanket, cookie-cutter services to each patient at Heidary’s direction and making as many medical specialist referrals as possible. Despite their qualifications, they also wrote medical legal reports (medlegals) using Heidary’s templates, the most expensive report in workers’ compensation. Medical doctors, or specialists, provided blanket treatment and medlegals on Heidary’s orders. Billings were made in each provider’s name, and payments were made to their accounts. However, Heidary required fee-splitting and he was the only one allowed to withdraw funds. Heidary also had the doctors sell their accounts-receivables (AR) to him, which he then sold to third parties.
Under the alleged fraud scheme, injured workers appeared at the law firm, which would fill out boilerplate paperwork and, on Heidary’s order, direct the workers to one of his clinics to begin treatment. At the clinic, the workers underwent treatments, regardless of need, such as massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, psychiatric and other services. After the maximum number of visits, they were discharged regardless of medical status. Each provider would fill out a " ‘super bill,’ " describing services rendered, which would then go to support staff to review compliance with Heidary’s orders. They would forward the superbill to a medical billing company. Those companies would generate a form to start the claim process. The billing companies contracted with each provider to bill for services, on Heidary’s order, including sometimes by forgery. Payment came from two sources: workers’ compensation insurers and third-party AR buyers.
The People originally filed a criminal complaint, but later dismissed it in favor of a grand jury hearing. On May 16, 2016, a Riverside County criminal grand jury returned an indictment against petitioner and codefendants Cary Abramowitz, Ana Solis, and Gladys Ross3 in Riverside County case No. RIF1670175. The indictment charges count 1 for conspiracy (§ 182, subd. (a)(1) ), for conspiring to knowingly make or causing to be made any false or fraudulent claims for payment of health care benefits, in violation of section 550, subdivision (a)(6) (Heidary, Abramowitz, Solis, and Ross); counts 2 through 19 for false or fraudulent claims for payment of health care benefits to 18 different, named insurers (§ 550, subd. (a) ) (Heidary, Abramowitz, Solis, and Ross); counts 20 through 37 for willfully and unlawfully making and causing to be made a knowingly false and fraudulent material statement and material representation to 18 different named insurers for payment of workers’ compensation ( Ins. Code, § 1871.4, subd. (a)(1) ) (Heidary, Abramowitz, Solis, and Ross); counts 38 through 66 for money laundering ( Pen. Code, § 186.10, subd. (a) ) (Heidary); count 67 for unlicensed practice of medicine ( Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2052, subd. (a) ) (Heidary); count 68 for "capping" ( Pen. Code, § 549 ) (soliciting, accepting or referring any business with the knowledge that, or with reckless disregard for whether, the individual or entity intends to violate Pen. Code, § 550 or Ins. Code, § 1871.4 ) (Heidary, Abramowitz, and Solis); and count 69 for the unlicensed practice of law ( Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6126, subd. (a) ) (Heidary and Abramowitz). The indictment also alleges a white-collar crime enhancement ( Pen. Code, § 186.11, subd. (a)(2) ) (Heidary, Abramowitz, Solis, and Ross).
On July 18, 2016, petitioner filed a demurrer to this indictment, challenging in part whether he had received notice of the charges and whether the indictment improperly aggregated multiple acts into single counts. The People opposed and petitioner filed a reply. The trial court conducted a hearing on August 19, 2016, and overruled the demurrer. Petitioner did not seek review of that decision. But, on December 19, 2016, petitioner filed a motion to set aside the indictment pursuant to section 995, essentially repeating the arguments from demurrer. The People again opposed. The trial court issued a ruling denying the motion on June 9, 2017. That order is the subject of the instant petition for writ of prohibition, which petitioner filed on June 26, 2017. This court summarily denied the petition on August 8, 2017. Petitioner sought review with the California Supreme Court.
On October 11, 2017, the Supreme Court issued the following order: This court vacated its summary denial of August 8, 2017. Petitioner then requested an immediate stay of all further proceedings in the underlying criminal case. This court issued the order to show cause, addressing the two points in the Supreme Court’s October 11, 2017 order and setting a briefing schedule. This court then denied petitioner’s request for immediate stay and petitioner again sought review with the Supreme Court.4 On December 13, 2017, the Supreme Court denied the petition for review and application for stay. After an extension of time, the parties completed their briefing.5
Petitioner seeks a writ of prohibition to vacate the respondent superior court’s order denying his motion to set aside indictment, and that such motion be granted with charges against petitioner dismissed. He broadly argues that the indictment lacks reasonable or probable cause on all counts for various reasons, and that the indictment cannot be amended to effect a demand for an election. Among his arguments are that the insurance fraud and workers’ compensation fraud claims are improperly aggregated, and that the indictment does not give due process notice of the charges against him to prepare a defense for trial. The Supreme Court’s order quoted above focuses on these last two points. We disagree with petitioner and specifically address the petition as framed by the particular issues the Supreme Court articulated.
A petition for writ of prohibition lies to prevent a threatened judicial act that is without, or in excess of, a court’s jurisdiction. ( Code Civ. Proc., § 1102 []; Abelleira v. District Court of Appeal (1941) 17 Cal.2d 280, 286-291, 109 P.2d 942 ; Green v. City of Oceanside (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 212, 220, 239 Cal.Rptr. 470.)
Preliminarily, the People acknowledge that the order to show cause invoked two issues: "Whether petitioner was afforded due process notice of the charges against him and whether the indictment improperly aggregated multiple acts into single counts." But, the People argue in addition that this court "does not have jurisdiction over either claim in the context of petitioner’s section 999a writ from the denial of his section 995 motion to set aside the indictment." We disagree.
The main thrust of the People’s argument is that petitioner raised his instant arguments in a previous demurrer to the superior court, which overruled the demurrer, but petitioner never challenged the ruling. Instead, the People argue, petitioner repackaged his arguments into an improper section 995 motion. Yet, it was a section 995 motion that the trial court and the parties contemplated during the hearing on the parties’ demurrers. The Hoffman court also found that approach appropriate. ( Hoffman , supra , 16 Cal.App.5th, at pp. 1096-1097, 224 Cal.Rptr.3d 818 [].) This court therefore finds this...
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