U.S. v. Debbi, 02 CR. 808(JSR).

• Decision Date: 31 January 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02 CR. 808(JSR).,02 CR. 808(JSR).
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, v. Shaul DEBBI, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

Page 235

244 F.Supp.2d 235

UNITED STATES of America, v. Shaul DEBBI, Defendant.

No. 02 CR. 808(JSR).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

January 31, 2003.

OPINION AND ORDER

RAKOFF, District Judge.

Defendant Shaul Debbi moves to suppress the fruits of certain searches and seizures. While the parties are poles apart in their assessment of the underlying merits of the case — with the Government asserting that Dr. Debbi, an ophthalmologist, took egregious advantage of senior citizens to repeatedly defraud Medicare and the defendant asserting that he is the innocent victim of a press-inspired witchhunt — they substantially agree as to the facts relevant to the instant motion, which are as follows:

Since at least April 2002, Debbi has been a subject of criminal investigations in both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. On May 2, 2002, a grand jury subpoena was issued in the Eastern District requesting, inter alia, Debbi's medical records of "adult home" patients. On May 10, the Southern District prosecutors, pursuant to a sealed complaint alleging Medicare fraud, obtained an arrest warrant for Debbi. The next day, FBI Special Agent Robert Hilland attempted to execute the warrant at Debbi's home in Great Neck Long Island, only to learn that Debbi had left the country the day before. See Affidavit of Robert Hilland dated May 24, 2002 ("Hilland Aff.") ¶¶ 9-10.

Around the same time, Hilland also learned that Debbi's wife (also a medical doctor) had recently asked a family friend, Isaac (or Itzak) Aizenburg, to transport several boxes from the Debbi home to a medical building (the "Westbury building") jointly owned by Aizenburg and Mrs. Debbi. Hilland Aff. KH 10-11; Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant Shaul Debbi's Pretrial Motions for Suppression of Evidence and Return of Illegally Seized Property ("Def.Mem.") at 19-20. Shortly thereafter, Aizenburg voluntarily consented to let FBI agents search the Westbury building and seize "any items which they determine may be related to their investigation," including the boxes. Consent to Search, Def. Ex. N; see also Def. Mem. at 20; Hilland Aff. H11. Upon inspection, the boxes were found to contain records responsive to the May 2, 2002 subpoena. Hilland Aff. 1111.

On May 24, 2002, the Southern District prosecutor obtained from Eastern District Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy a warrant to search Debbi's home in Great Neck and his two medical offices in Brook Plaza, Brooklyn. Agent Hilland's affidavit in support of the application alleged in conclusory fashion that Debbi had overbilled and otherwise defrauded Medicare, alleged in general terms that Debbi had performed more surgery on adult home patients than would be statistically normal, and alleged in more specific terms an instance in which Debbi had performed an unnecessary cataract operation and another instance in which he had performed eye surgery without the patient's informed consent. See Hilland Aff. 114. The affidavit also alleged, inter alia, that Debbi had attempted to conceal incriminating records, as evidenced by the transfer of the boxes to the Westbury building, and that he had fled the country fearing prosecution. Id. HIT 9-12.¹

Based on such information, Magistrate Judge Levy approved a warrant that, subject to certain specified limitations set forth below, broadly allowed agents to search for and seize "[e]vidence . . . from the Premises and any closed containers . . . therein including" treatment records, claim records, financial records, telephone, fax, and appointment records, address records, and "other records relating to or reflecting the submission of false claims," as well as "documents reflecting the identities of the owners and employees of various medical facilities with which Dr. Shaul Debbi is affiliated," and also computers, data storage devices, and other devices "which could contain or be used to transmit or store any of the foregoing records." Such seizures, however, were expressly "limited to items in furtherance of: (1) obstruction of justice; (2) the commission of health care fraud and which relate to patients who are covered by Medicare and Medicaid insurance or patients who reside at adult homes." No other limitation — such as to date range or as to doctor — was imposed. See Def. Ex. A.

Pursuant to this warrant, FBI agents searched Debbi's home and seized the equivalent of seven document boxes of items, of which roughly one box was subsequently returned to the defendant. Def. Ex. G; Gov't Ex. B. Among the items seized and not returned were numerous personal files (both electronic and paper) general correspondence, financial records, and records relating to Debbi's "private" patients, i.e., non-Medicare patients who do not reside in adult homes, not to mention numerous records of Mrs. Debbi.

Against this background, Debbi challenges both the seizure from the Westbury building and the seizures from his home.² As to the former, assuming arguendo that Debbi retained a sufficient privacy interest in the boxes his wife gave to a third party to accord him standing to challenge the seizure, cf. United States v. Hershenow, 680 F.2d 847, 855-56 (1^st Cir. 1982) (no privacy interest remained after leaving box of medical records in nursing home barn), that retained interest, such as it was, was here overborne by Aizenburg's consent to the search. It was Aizenburg himself who had transported the boxes to the room in the Westbury building where they were stored, a room to which Aizenburg had a legal right of access and Debbi none. While there is no evidence that the boxes were opened prior to the consent search, Debbi conceded at oral argument that they were neither taped nor otherwise sealed, see transcript Oct. 4, 2002 at 56, 96-97, and in challenging the seizure Debbi nowhere contends that he (or even Mrs. Debbi) told Aizenburg not to look inside what were freely openable boxes that Aizenburg, an independent third party, could reasonably be expected to open. Accordingly, the sole ground on which Debbi challenges the Westbury building seizure — i.e., that it invaded his...