It was the last remaining civil action resulting from years of gross illegal mismanagement of TLHCD and Tulare Regional Medical Center (TRMC).

Kumar Was the Last of the HCCA Supporters

Kumar was the last director remaining in a lawsuit against the TLHCD board members who maintained hardline support for the company that had assumed control of the district and its assets.

The hastily-assembled management company – Health Care Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) – had entered into a contract to run TLHCD that cost the hospital district and its voters millions. It eventually led the district into bankruptcy, which forced the indefinite closure of TRMC.

The hospital has since reopened as Adventist Tulare.

The disgraced CEO of HCCA, Dr Yorai “Benny” Benzeevi, was charged with dozens of felony and misdemeanor charges by the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Last February, Benzeevi pleaded no contest to six felonies and two misdemeanor crimes. He received probation, house arrest and community service hours, and was ordered to pay $2 million restitution to TLHCD and $400,000 to Southern Inyo Healthcare District (SIHD).

Also pleading no contest to a felony, public conflict-of-interest was HCCA CFO Alan Germany. He paid $100,000 restitution to TLHCD, $50,000 to SIHD, and was sentenced to probation and community service. Neither was required to issue a statement of remorse to the victims of their crimes.

Criminal prosecution of Bruce Greene is ongoing. Greene, an attorney with the BakerHostetler law firm, served concurrently as both legal counsel to HCCA and TLHCD, creating an alleged conflict of interest. He too faces multiple charges stemming from his involvement with HCCA, and TLHCD and SIHD.

Kumar Issues a ‘Formal Public Apology’

Kumar, as part of his settlement with the district, agreed to issue what a TLHCD statement called a “formal public apology.”

The text of Kumar’s brief, unaddressed statement follows:

STATEMENT OF PARMOD KUMAR, M.D., RELATED TO TLHD (sic)

I understand the concerns expressed by the board of Directors of the Tulare Local Healthcare (sic) District and the community related to the Healthcare (sic) Conglomerates Associates’ management of the district and Tulare Regional Medical Center as well as the criminal charges brought against some of the people involved. I recognize that I was on the board during part of the HCCA’s management of the hospital’s operation and to the extent any of my acts or omissions as a director may have related to the outcome, I apologize.

s/ Parmod Kumar 3/6/25

TLHCD’s public statement on the Kumar matter calls HCCA’s agreement with the district “highly controversial.” In fact, the contract left the district hamstrung by financial liabilities, providing HCCA with upsides and leaving the district with little means to avoid the debt. It also set Benzeevi’s payoff at up to $6 million annually, the district’s statement says.

Additionally, in 2017, Kumar supported a district vote that allowed HCCA to borrow $22 million under the district’s name without board oversight.

“It is widely regarded as one of the worst management contracts in public hospital history,” said Kevin Northcraft, current president of the TLHCD board.

Lowlights of Kumar’s TLHCD Tenure as a Director

Kumar’s terms on the TLHCD board were marked by frequent controversy. But the physician was already carrying baggage from past misdeeds when he was elected.

In 2013, former TLHCD board member Roger McPhetridge alleged that Kumar was seeing as many as 64 patients during four-hour shifts at the district’s Federally Qualified Health Center; FQHC standards only allowed a doctor to treat four patients per hour. According to reporting by the Financial Times of London, a Department of Justice investigation found Kumar could have pocketed $800,000 from 2010 to 2012 while working under an illegal contract.

Kumar and his wife, Dr. Parul Gupta, resigned from their positions at the district’s FQHC during the course of the investigation.

Similar concerns around overpayments to physicians resulted in action against the district in 2009, when the district entered into a corporate integrity agreement with the US Department of Health and Human Services and paid $2.4 million to the government to settle allegations of illegal reimbursements.

Other unsettling events occurred during his time on the TLHCD board. Federal Build America funds were misspent, resulting in higher area property taxes in 2015-17. The district’s lawsuit against Kumar claims he and the rest of the board voted to spend $78,000 of district money to fund court action against fellow physician Dr. Abraham Betre on Kumar’s behalf.

In that same year, 2016, Kumar and the board voted to fire the TRMC’s medical executive committee (MEC). Betre was president of the MEC at the time. Suspiciously, when the MEC was dismissed, Kumar was facing a deadline to complete anger management training the MEC had ordered him to undergo. Had the MEC not been removed, Kumar faced losing his privileges to practice medicine at TRMC.

Kumar and Benzeevi’s Antics Gain National Attention

In January of 2017, as the end was approaching for HCCA and Kumar’s term as a director, Kumar voted against a motion by two newly elected board members to hire an independent attorney to represent TLHCD. At the time, BakerHostetler’s Greene was acting as counsel to both HCCA and TLHCD. Greene and his firm settled a lawsuit against them by the district – which alleged negligence in not disclosing potential conflicts of interest – with a $3m payment in 2023 .

The vote Kumar supported to give HCCA access to $22 million in credit based on TLHCD’s assets came in June of that year. But the biggest outrage came later that year. With Kumar facing likely recall by unhappy voters, Benzeevi formulated a particularly underhanded scheme to foil the election. He hired an Israeli private intelligence company, Psy-Group, to interfere.

The laughably bumbling effort by Psy-Group to slander and intimidate Kumar’s opponent cost Benzeevi and HCCA $230,000, and it proved entirely ineffective. Kumar lost the recall vote by a landslide. It also resulted in a lengthy investigative report in the New Yorker magazine that gained nationwide attention.

But the shenanigans weren’t over. The board voted to hold Kumar’s recall election at one of the latest possible dates, which allowed HCCA time to ink a deal that generated $3 million revenue for TLHCD. However, the money was rerouted to HCCA as payment for services.

Kumar lost his seat, with 80 percent of voters going against him. One of Kumar’s last actions while serving as a director was to demand a recount of the landslide vote. The move further delayed the seating of his opponent and ultimately the removal of HCCA.

End of a ‘Troubled Chapter’ for Tulare and the TLHCD

While the prosecution of Greene goes on, settlement with Kumar marks an end to the district’s legal efforts to recover from the damage HCCA, Benzeevi and Germany – and perhaps Greene – did to the Tulare Local Health Care District. At least for now.

The district’s statement on the settlement refers to Kumar’s tenure on the board as a “troubled chapter” in TLHCD’s ongoing operations.

“There’s no more district lawsuits out there,” said current TLHCD CEO Randy Dodd. “We’re just anxious to get back to the business of the district.”

While some felt the terms of the settlement were too lenient on Kumar, after nearly a decade of unravelling the confusion, the TLHCD district directors felt the time was right to move on and focus on other things.

“I believe the board felt this was the best settlement without going to court,” Dodd said.

He said settling was likely the wisest move to avoid further chaos and fallout.

“There’s a couple reasons, one is obviously the cost,” Dodd said. “There’s also risk in it. You’re at the mercy of a jury of your peers. It can go anywhere. This lets the district put this behind us.”

The district is now free to focus on its core mission. The future, Dodd said, looks bright.

“It’s about what we can now do to support this community and what it deserves,” he said. “You pay off the bankruptcy. You pay off your debts. You have revenue coming in. What can you do to benefit the community?”

Citizens for Hospital Accountability reacts

Citizens for Hospital Accountability, an organization formed in response to HCCA’s management of the hospital, supported Kumar’s recall and Senovia Gutierrez, the candidate who ultimately replaced him.

The organization provided the Valley Voice with a response to Kumar’s apology and the settlement.

“Parmod Kumar’s “apology” statement does not meet the criteria for an apology. An apology is defined as a regretful acknowledgment of an offense or failure. Regret is what is missing. In fact, Dr. Kumar would still be on the hospital district board, if not for his recall led by Citizens for Hospital Accountability. He fought against his recall even after the results were resoundingly and overwhelmingly in favor of his recall (80.6%),” the statement reads.

“Dr. Kumar had been a board member for twenty years. His only regret would be that all of this happened to him and his power was diminished. His statement reads like a victim’s statement, when in reality, many patients and employees were the actual victims. Dr. Kumar falsely states that he was merely on the board for “part” of the time HCCA managed the hospital. He was on the board the entire time HCCA was allowed to extract every dime possible from the hospital without any pushback from the board. It wasn’t until he relinquished his stranglehold on the board, that HCCA no longer was allowed to continue its fleecing of the district,” it continues.

The full statement is available here.

District Faced Pressure to Settle from Kumar’s Friends

While the TLHCD directors and their attorneys were wrestling with how to end their suit against Kumar, they were also being pressured to “move on” from their efforts by a group of prominent local citizens, including current and former community leaders.

An undated letter was circulated through the community that called for an end to the “personal vendetta against Dr. Kumar.” The district’s attempt to recoup the money spent suing Betre was not “a valid suit for damages.”

“In the best interest of our community, we believe its (sic) time to move on,” the letter states. “We encourage the hospital board to put our tax dollars to better use than harassing Dr. Kumar.”

The letter ends with a call for a united Tulare and a better future. It was signed by Brian and Patty Watte, Tony Taylor, Bob Wilbur, Sue Shannon, Tone De Rose, former State Assembly Member Connie Conway, Joanne Watte and former Tulare mayor Craig Vejvoda.

“We wrote the letter and we stand by everything in the letter,” said Conway. “How many investigations do you need? It seemed like a vendetta. It’s time to move on.”

Loyalty May Have Been Behind Kumar’s Decisions

Conway has known Kumar for many years and holds him in high esteem.

“Dr. Kumar is my neighbor and my friend,” she said. “I believe he saved my mother’s life.”

Those who signed the letter felt the district was too vehement in its dealings with Kumar.

“It just felt personal,” she said. “The DA said there’s nothing there. The FBI or whoever said there’s nothing there. It felt personal and vindictive.”

Conway, however, said she was not aware of the 2013 investigation into Kumar. But she still maintains the response from the district’s board of directors went too far.

“A couple of them on there (the board), it felt a little over the top,” Conway said. “That’s just me.”

And she supports Kumar’s motivations for his actions as a TLHCD director.

“I think we all have certain expectations when it comes to situations like this. The group of friends who signed the letter, it (district action to sue Kumar) just seemed more personal (to them),” Conway said. “I believe Dr Kumar thought he was doing the best for the district.”

The group believes Kumar was maintaining his loyalty to Benzeevi. Because of that, he took many unpopular actions to support HCCA while it was under heavy siege from an increasingly confused and angry public, which had lost faith in the company and its executives.

“When you trust somebody, when you hire somebody, it’s hard to do that,” Conway said. “You make that decision, the whole board might not agree with it, but that’s our guy.”

Letter-Writers Fear Fallout from Kumar ‘Incident’

Those who continue to support Kumar in his dealings with the TLHCD also wanted the district to seek a lower amount of financial compensation.

“I don’t know if this serves any purpose,” Conway said.

She fears the district’s dogged treatment of Kumar in gaining restitution will discourage others from taking leadership roles in the future. The TLHCD has had difficulties finding community members willing to step up when seats became open or were up for election.

“I think incidents like this will make people hesitate to serve on these boards,” Conway said.

And, like those making the legal decisions for TLHCD now, Kumar’s supporters worry about the costs involved. They say the agreed restitution – $500,000 – could also make future would-be seekers of public office think twice about running.

“At this point, it is what it is. Anyone who’s had any legal dealings, you’re spending so much on lawyers, what is the real cost?” Conway said. “I think this happens with a lot of people. At some point the loss exceeds the value of what you’re trying to do in your pursuit. On both sides. The lawyers are making money.”

The post Tulare Local Health Care District settles final lawsuit from mismanagement era appeared first on Valley Voice.

Former Tulare hospital executive Dr. Yorai “Benny” Benzeevi will avoid jail time and serve 463 days of probation in Los Angeles County after pleading no contest to six felonies and two misdemeanors.

The charges stemmed from acts undertaken when he and his company, Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, managed Tulare Regional Medical Center and the Southern Inyo Hospital.

A negotiated plea deal, which Judge Michael Sheltzer upheld, required Benzeevi to complete 420 hours of community service, 120 days of house arrest, pay $2m restitution to the Tulare Local Healthcare District, and pay $400k restitution to the Southern Inyo Healthcare District.

Benzeevi and HCCA managed hospitals in both districts, and his charges related to crimes against both hospitals.

He had completed his community service, house arrest, and restitution requirements by the time of the sentencing hearing on November 14. He will also be required to pay upwards of $1,000 in fines and fees before his probation ends.

Benzeevi is only serving 463 days of probation instead of two years as he was credited for 267 days of house arrest. The credit came from the time between when Benzeevi would have normally been sentenced and the November court date, Sheltzer said.

While sentencing normally would have taken place 20 days after the February hearing in which Benzeevi changed his plea, the sentencing was repeatedly delayed due to the Israel-Hamas War.  Benzeevi’s funds were frozen – including funds located in Israeli banks – during the case, and the funds’ release was required to provide restitution to the districts. The war is slowing bureaucratic and court operations in Israel, delaying the un-freezing of his Israeli bank accounts.

Sheltzer handed down the sentence after victim impact statements were given by Xavier Avila, a Tulare Local Healthcare District board member, and Patty Drilling Phelps, a Tulare dentist and founding member of Citizens for Hospital Accountability, a grassroots group which pursued and opposed Benzeevi’s management of Tulare Regional Medical Center.

Avila and Drilling Phelps both asked the court to sentence Benzeevi to actual jail time, as did the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office.

Sheltzer said that he was bound to hold up the original plea agreement, which only included probation, as Benzeevi had held up his end of the deal – and Sheltzer said he favored the deal because it gave the opportunity for immediate monetary restitution.

“The primary reasoning for this […] was so that restitution would be paid in full,” Sheltzer said. “If Dr. Benzeevi was not allowed to work, that major goal would not be accomplished. It would not serve the public purpose to put him in the four walls of a jail cell, even though I realize that perhaps some members of the community feel that would be more appropriate.”

It also prevented years of additional litigation.

“I didn’t honestly expect this case to settle,” Sheltzer said. “I’m glad that it did.”

Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said he was pleased with the resolution to Benzeevi’s case.

“As I stated at the time of the plea, our focus was to financially restore the losses caused by the defendant while having him admit his guilt. I believe that goal has been met – $2.4 million dollars in restitution has been returned to victims in Tulare and Inyo and the defendant is a convicted felon. However, we cannot forget the human and extremely personal toll the defendant’s actions took on the community,” Ward said in a press release.

“Though we advocated for time in custody, we respect the court’s decisions today. We now look forward to focusing our efforts on the remaining defendant in this case.”

DA asks for year in jail. Benzeevi attorney: he’s suffered enough

The Tulare County District Attorney’s office requested that the judge sentence Benzeevi to one year in jail and one year probation instead of two years’ probation.

“The seriousness of the crime goes far beyond any illicit benefit that Dr. Benzeevi may have received and strikes to the heart of the citizens’ right to have any local government place the interests of the citizenry above all,” a filing written by Trevor Holly, Assistant District Attorney, reads. “This is a serious matter, and the Court must not only look to an appropriate punishment given Dr. Benzeevi’s conduct, but also consider that the punishment be substantial enough to deter other public officials from engaging in the same conduct. Therefore, the People respectfully request a sentence of 365-days and felony probation.”

Holly said the same in court.

“We have our public officials in charge of operating institutions and spending money for the public good,” he said. “We expect more from them, and one of the things we expect is that they will not enter into contracts, where they have a financial interest in doing so.”

Benzeevi’s attorney, Nina Marino, told the court that Benzeevi was a good person who had been given bad advice.

“He’s a good person. He had good intentions. He got bad advice. He lost his marriage, he lost all his financial security, he lost his employment, he’s lost his career,” she said. “I’ve said before he took full responsibility, he takes full responsibility. He’s paid his debt to society, and we ask the court to impose the sentence indicated.”

In a filing, Marino states that Benzeevi “relied extensively on the advice of counsel in his contractual undertakings on behalf of HCCA,” and that he “dedicated his career to providing medical care to underserved communities,” including in Merced, Fresno, El Centro, Madera, Visalia, Selma, Turlock, and Tulare.

The case has taken a personal toll on Benzeevi and his family, she said in the filing: he and his wife separated in 2017 “after enduring several years of racial and anti-Semitic slurs, public ridicule, insults, and threats” stemming from the case, and his wife filed for divorce in 2023, according to court records.

Additionally, Benzeevi “now faces disciplinary proceedings before the Medical Board for his convictions in this matter,” and after filing his “no contest” plea, Marino states Benzeevi lost a job at a Los Angeles-area urgent care clinic.

“By all accounts, Dr. Benzeevi has been punished and he continues to be punished. He has suffered and will continue to suffer severe collateral consequences because of the prosecution and convictions,” the filing states. “This is a factor this Court should consider when imposing sentence.”

Charges pleaded, charges dropped

Benzeevi initially faced 46 felony and misdemeanor counts related to embezzlement, fraud, conflicts of interest, and violations of the Political Reform Act.

42 of those charges were dismissed with the plea deal. The remaining counts relate to:

• The use of Tulare district funds to finance a lawsuit against Dr. Abraham Betre
• The creation of a line of credit for the Southern Inyo Hospital using Tulare’s funds
• Making loans to Southern Inyo through a financial entity he created and controlled
• Issuing promissory notes to Tulare secured by a deed on district property, including the Evolutions gym
• Selling $3m in Tulare Regional hospital equipment in a leaseback transaction
• Funding the private intelligence agency Psy Group to influence the recall election of former Tulare hospital board member Dr. Parmod Kumar, a supporter of HCCA’s management who Benzeevi hired as the medical director at Southern Inyo
• Participating in efforts to avoid the recognition and seating of Senovia Gutierrez, the former Tulare hospital board member who won Kumar’s seat after he was recalled, and a critic of HCCA’s management

If Benzeevi had been convicted on all 46 charges, he could have faced up to 44 years in prison, though under existing guidelines and California’s Prop 47, that would have been incredibly unlikely.

“There’s no way that any court is going to sentence you to 44 years in county jail,” Sheltzer told Benzeevi during a February 9 hearing.

Impact on other cases

Benzeevi is the second leadership figure of Healthcare Conglomerate Associates to face consequences for actions taken when HCCA managed the two hospitals – Tulare Regional from 2014 to 2017, and Southern Inyo from 2016 to 2017.

Alan Germany, former CFO for HCCA and Tulare Regional, and Southern Inyo’s former Chief Restructuring Officer, pleaded “no contest” to two counts: a misdemeanor count of failing to file a financial disclosure form required of public officials, and a felony count of violating Government Code 1090, a public conflict-of-interest law.

Germany was sentenced to two years of probation, 540 hours of community service, and restitution payments of $100k to the Tulare district and $50k to the Southern Inyo district.

Bruce Greene, HCCA’s former attorney, was charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, initially through a criminal filing by the District Attorney’s office; and, after multiple delays in the initial case, he was indicted by a grand jury in 2024, closing the initial case and opening a new one.

He has maintained his innocence and has previously refused plea deals in his case.

Holly said that while Benzeevi could be used as a witness in Greene’s case, the Tulare County District Attorney’s office did not make a cooperating plea agreement. it was unlikely that he would be called to do so due to potential attorney-client privilege issues.

“60 days after sentencing, when the appellate rights have expired, either side may call him as a witness and he’s under the same obligation that everyone else is,” Holly said. “It all gets very complicated though, so I don’t know if anyone will call him as a witness.”

Victim impact statements

Avila told the court that Benzeevi’s actions warranted a “firm response” and had significantly damaged the community, and that his actions led to the closure of the hospital – during which time Avila said he had been told of patients who showed up to an empty building at best, and lost their life at worst. His full statement is available here.

“The board is not asking that this court reject the plea presently before it, but it does strongly urge the court to sentence Dr. Benzeevi to meaningful jail time. Although the crimes to which Dr. Benzeevi is pleading no contest to are non-violent in nature, the resulting damage caused to this community is certainly an act of violence,” Avila said.

“My board is forced to fight a lingering negative perception of the district and the hospital leadership. It shocks the conscience that all this happened under the leadership of a licensed emergency medical position,” Avila said.

Drilling Phelps said that Benzeevi’s actions led directly to patient harm and deaths, and that his harm must be considered in sentencing. Her full statement is available here.

“It cannot be overlooked that there was physical harm done to patients – in some cases, resulting in the ultimate sacrifice of death. There were victims who suffered and died. Let that sink in a moment. They died because of greed and the need for power, placing profits over people,” Drilling Phelps said. “There were inadequate supplies, some taken away from our hospital to Southern Inyo, inoperative equipment, lack of infection control and physical plant disrepair because money was being hoarded rather than put back into the hospital. The Medical Executive Committee was disbanded by the district board at the behest of Drs. Benzeevi and Kumar, so there would be no oversight of physicians, nor oversight of hospital care.”

“HCCA touted first-world financial success while operating a third-world hospital. Morally, these were intentionally cruel, careless and inhumane acts. The district attorney and the court examined the hospital district’s financial loss and its legal ramifications. Overlooked is the human component: the irreparable harm done to patients at the hospital while financial crimes were perpetrated,” it continues.

What’s next

Proceedings for Greene’s trial are tentatively scheduled to start on February 24, 2025. The Voice will continue to cover that case to its conclusion.

The post Former HCCA CEO sentenced for crimes running Tulare and Inyo hospitals, avoids jail appeared first on Valley Voice.

Not long after that announcement, hospital officials ended up moving that date up to April 30.

“Adventist Health Tulare paused labor and delivery care effective April 30, 2024, at 11:59 p.m,” a statement from Renee Garcia, a marketing manager with Adventist Health, read.

“The decision to move the closure date from June 6, 2024, came after a conversation with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and hospital leadership about unsustainable obstetric volumes at the hospital to protect patient safety,” the statement said.

Garcia said that the inconsistent numbers of expectant mothers made it impossible to keep the hospital staffed with labor and delivery nurses and doctors.

“More high risk moms were coming into the emergency room, such as moms that hadn’t had any prenatal care, and we were worried about patient safety,” she said.

Garcia said that now all expectant mothers are transferred to other hospitals unless it’s an emergency.

“The Emergency Department at Adventist Health Tulare is trained to provide superb care in emergent maternal care cases,” said Heather Van Housen, Patient Care Executive for Adventist’s Central California Network.

Garcia said the hospital has been giving their ER doctors extra training in how to handle emergency births.

In the mean time, Adventist Tulare has been trying to get the word out.

Garcia said they’ve put the new closing date on public announcement advertisements in newspapers, announced it on their website and have advised all the local clinics.

“Patients can continue to rely on Adventist Health for exceptional delivery and obstetric care in Hanford, Reedley, and Delano. If patients are transferred to one of our locations, they can expect timely, compassionate, and high-quality healthcare,” said the statement.

The decision to close the Obstetrics Department at Adventist Tulare was made in March. Hospitals have been closing maternity wards across the state in recent years, according to a November 2023 CalMatters report that found “at least 46 California hospitals have shut down or indefinitely suspended labor and delivery since 2012.”

“Year over year the number of births at the hospital has declined 60% and was even worse in the last few months. Unfortunately, the number of deliveries has substantially declined over the last two years, and the program is not sustainable,” Garcia told the Voice in March.

Garcia said that staff working in labor and delivery at Tulare were reassigned to Adventist Health’s Hanford and Reedley locations, though some chose to leave and work at Kaweah Health due to the commute.

Kevin Northcraft, the Tulare Local Healthcare District board president, was unaware the department was already closed.

“We have not discussed it during our meetings,” he said. “The board doesn’t have anything to do with the running of the hospital.”

The district owns the physical hospital premises and leases the hospital campus to Adventist Health, but doesn’t control the hospital’s operations.

Northcraft said he hoped the closure is temporary.

“Tulare has 77,000 people and to not be able to have your home town on your birth certificate – it’s sad,” he said.

Northcraft emphasized that the hospital had made advances in other areas such as orthopedics and  MRIs.

He said a couple of months ago Adventist Tulare acquired MRI equipment that is the best in the country — and the only one like it in the state. The clarity of MRIs is vastly improved, he said.

The future of obstetrics in Tulare

“Adventist Health will continue to enhance family planning, women’s health, prenatal care, and pediatric care in the community at Adventist Health Medical Office Tulare at 2059 N. Hillman St., Tulare, CA 93274,” the statement said.

Garcia said that Adventist’s goal is to reopen obstetrics at Adventist Tulare, and that a new obstetrics doctor is slated to start at an Adventist clinic in August — they will then refer obstetric patients to Adventist Tulare once the department is operational.

More information about Adventist Health Tulare services and the future of the obstetrics department is available at https://adventisthealth.org/tulare/.

The post Adventist Tulare shutters labor & delivery five weeks early appeared first on Valley Voice.

According to a 14-page filing in Tulare County Superior Court, Jose Josh Wee III and Ava Olsen have both suffered long-term health problems stemming from what the district reported as an unanticipated release of toxic gas following a repair of the swimming pool’s automated chemical treatment system at Evolutions Fitness and Wellness Center in Tulare. Evolutions is owned and operated by the TLHCD.

The plaintiffs, Wee and Olsen, were competitive swimmers training for their freshman seasons in college at the time of the incident. Both were reported as minors at the time the incident took place. They are represented by Hoope Law of Fresno, which filed the case on March 6.

A case management conference regarding the case is scheduled for July 8 before Judge Gary M. Johnson at the Tulare County Courthouse in Visalia.

Chlorine and Human Waste formed Toxic Reaction

According to a pair of analyses of the incident conducted on behalf of TLHCD, the toxin in the pool area was chloramine, a byproduct produced when chlorine used to sanitize pool water mixes with human waste already present. However, initial indications were muriatic acid may have been the cause. The confusion over what toxin had caused the poisoning continued for nine days until the district released the analysts’ reports.

This led victim Ava Olsen’s father Paul to say he suspected a conspiracy on the part of TLHCD to hide the cause of his daughter’s injuries. TLHCD CEO Randy Dodd later explained the delay was created by a sense of caution and the need for a complete investigation.

The delay, Paul Olsen said, made treating his daughter much more difficult.

“She was put on oxygen. She was given steroids,” he said of his daughter’s experience after the incident. “She couldn’t breathe. They gave her a steroid shot, I guess her throat was swollen.”

Ten days after the incident took place, Olsen said his daughter was still suffering painful symptoms of chloramine exposure and receiving ongoing breathing treatments. He described her lung capacity as about 90% of what it had been prior to the poisoning. He worried, he said, about her future as a collegiate swimmer.

“Is she going to be able to compete at the same level?” Olsen said. “Will she ever be the same?”

Ava Olsen and Wee, both recent graduates of Tulare Union High School, were training for their upcoming freshman year as collegiate competitive swimmers when the incident at Evolutions occurred. Olsen was preparing to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Wee was to join the aquatics team at Concordia University in Irvine. Both were minors at the time.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

‘Pandemonium’ at Poolside as Swimmers Escaped

The lawsuit – which could broaden to include as-yet unnamed manufacturers, installers and maintenance workers who dealt with the allegedly faulty sanitization system as defendants – claims Olsen and Wee were choked by “an unknown chemical agent” in the pool area after completing sprint laps in the pool.

“Simultaneously, both plaintiffs began coughing and were unable to draw breath,” the suit claims. “Their throats constricted and were burning. Neither plaintiff knew what had happened or what was happening to them.”

Chaos broke out as it became clear to the people in the pool area something was wrong.

“Pandemonium ensued. Swimmers fled the pool and collapsed in or near the locker room,” the suit states. “Plaintiff Wee collapsed in the men’s locker room and had to be carried out of the building by a good Samaritan. Plaintiff Olson attempted to self-extricate herself from the building but collapsed into a chair near the front desk.”

A total of five swimmers were injured during the incident, according to reports from the Tulare Fire Department, which responded to the emergency.

TFD did not investigate the cause of the toxic gas release. However, a social media post from management at the gym called the incident “an apparent malfunction of a sensor that controls the automatic flow of chemicals to our swimming pool.”

TLHCD CEO Dodd would later describe the district’s view of the incident:

“We had a situation: The pool is down a couple of days, the water’s not being stirred up, the air’s not being moved, those chloramines drop down, sit on top of the pool, and then you introduce people, contaminants, other things that have a reaction with whatever the chemicals are, and this is conjecture, which is not a great place to be, but at that point whatever that level reached, it off-gassed,” Dodd said.

Dodd did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Victims’ Medical Bills Left Unpaid

Once the emergency situation at the pool was identified by staff, the gym was cleared and emergency response personnel were summoned. At the recommendation of a 911 dispatcher, those exposed to the unknown toxic gas were hosed down outside the facility to remove the contaminant.

According to the lawsuit, the exposure to cold water made breathing even more difficult for Olsen and Wee, as the pair continued to struggle for air. They experienced a burning sensation on their skin, eyes and in their respiratory systems, and were transported by ambulance to Adventist Health Tulare hospital. The hospital premises are owned by the TLHCD, but leased and operated by Adventist Health Central Valley.

Because officials at Evolutions and the TLHCD were unaware what toxin Wee and Olsen had been exposed to, their treatment was further complicated, the suit alleges.

Adding insult to injury, unnamed TLHCD representatives allegedly promised to pay the cost of victims’ medical treatment resulting from the injuries incurred during the incident, the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs’ lawyers say the district reneged on that promise.

“The bills were forwarded to (TLHCD’s) counsel, but went unpaid despite these promises,” the suit said. “(TLHCD) has not made good on their word, and some of plaintiffs’ bills have been sent to collections. (TLHCD) even refused to pay the ambulance bills.”

Both Wee and Olsen continue to experience shortness of breath and a lack of stamina. The pair have developed anxiety, inability to concentrate and depression as a result. Their attorneys believe the district should pay for their previous and ongoing medical expenses.

“The fear of not being able to take a breath remains with them,” the suit states.

Injured Swimmers Seek Damages for Negligence, Liability

The suit on Olsen and Wee’s behalf claims six causes for the legal action against the TLHCD, as well as the companies that designed, built and marketed the automated pool sanitation system, and the workers who installed and maintained the system for the district.

The suit’s main complaint is that the TLHCD failed to maintain a “sanitary, healthful and safe” public swimming pool, as required by the state’s Health and Safety Code. Further, the suit claims statements from the district about the incident make the negligence clear and obvious, though specific examples were not cited.

Negligence on the part of the hospital district was responsible, the suit alleges, not only for the injuries suffered during the incident but also for any possible future repercussions, including an early death. TLHCD administrators, the suit claimed, “acted with intent to injure, vex and annoy” Olsen and Wee.

Specifically, attorneys claim management at the district and at Evolutions failed to hire and retain qualified personnel to maintain their public pool, and failed to properly supervise those who did the job. The suit claims district administration were aware or should have been aware their employees were “unfit or incompetent.”

Additionally, the suit claims some responsibility for the toxic gas release is also due to product liability on the part of yet unnamed third-party co-defendants responsible for a malfunctioning switch plaintiffs’ attorneys apparently believe was defective and caused the incident.

Manufacturers also Responsible, Suit Alleges

A sweeping description of possible co-defendants includes the companies that “manufactured, designed, assembled, compounded, tested or failed to test, inspected or failed to inspect, packaged, labeled, fabricated, constructed, analyzed, distributed, serviced, merchandised, recommended, advertised, promoted, marketed and sold the flow switch for the automatic chemical controller and its component parts and constituents” as a responsible parties.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys claim the flow switch was defective.

Further, those who built and installed the automated system, the suit alleges, knew it was not adequate for its purpose and was unsafe. The suit also says the TLHCD administration was unaware of the danger posed by the defective products until they failed.

Finally, the suit says managers at Evolutions and the TLHCD failed to adequately inspect and properly maintain their public swimming pool.

Lawyers for Olsen and Wee are seeking general and compensatory damages, as well as reimbursement for lost wages, interest, attorneys fees and other costs incurred as a result of the June 27 incident at Evolutions.

The post Swimmers injured in pool poisoning sue Tulare hospital district appeared first on Valley Voice.

A grand jury has indicted attorney Bruce Greene on multiple felony and misdemeanor counts related to actions he allegedly took while representing the Tulare Local Healthcare District and Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, the district’s former hospital management partner.

The grand jury handed down its indictment with eleven felony counts and five misdemeanor counts on April 30. Greene was arraigned yesterday in the Tulare County Superior Court via Zoom, and pled not guilty to all of the alleged crimes.

The alleged crimes span the gamut from conflicts of interest and embezzlement — related to funds used in a lawsuit by Benzeevi against a doctor, and to loans made by HCCA with Tulare’s money to the Southern Inyo Healthcare District, another HCCA partner at the time — to grand theft, related to a $3m leaseback transaction in which HCCA sold some Tulare hospital equipment.

In 2020, Greene was charged by prosecutors with the same crimes alongside HCCA CEO Benny Benzeevi and former HCCA CFO Alan Germany. Under both the old charges and the new indictment, he could face up to ten years of prison time if found guilty of all crimes, though Proposition 57 could significantly reduce any potential sentence.

The trio’s cases have moved glacially through the legal system, but Greene was the last man standing this year after he declined plea offers by the Tulare County District Attorney’s office. Germany pled no contest in 2023, and Benzeevi accepted a no contest plea deal in February 2024.

The Tulare County District Attorney’s office declined to comment on why Greene’s case was only now brought to a grand jury, though one reason could be to speed the case up: a preliminary hearing, the required first step in a case in which prosecutors bring charges against someone, hasn’t been held in Greene’s case since it was lodged in 2020. An indictment brought down by a grand jury does not require a preliminary hearing.

The move to indict him through a grand jury process effectively closes the old case and creates a new one.

Greene and the firm he worked for, BakerHostetler, settled a civil lawsuit related to Greene’s conduct in Tulare for $3m in early 2023, but legal problems outside of the criminal case remain on the horizon: a California State Bar case against him is active, but was placed on hold pending a resolution of the criminal case.

“We thank the members of the criminal grand jury for their time and deliberations in considering the many complexities of this case,” Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said in a press release. “Prosecutors are prepared and looking forward to advancing this matter to the finality of a trial.”

According to the indictment, grand jury members heard from 40 witnesses.

Judge Michael Sheltzer, who oversaw the prior criminal cases, will preside over this case as well. A status review hearing is scheduled for August 2, 2024, and a jury trial is tentatively scheduled for February 24, 2025, according to the Tulare County Superior Court website. Courtrooms have not been assigned for either event.

The post Former Tulare hospital attorney indicted by grand jury appeared first on Valley Voice.

Dr. Yorai ”Benny” Benzeevi is now a felon.

On Friday, the 61-year-old pleaded no contest to six felony and two misdemeanor charges stemming from crimes committed while acting as CEO of the Tulare Local Healthcare District from 2014 to 2017. Tulare County Superior Court Judge Michael Sheltzer accepted the plea agreement during a hearing on February 9.

Benzeevi will be sentenced in Tulare County Superior Court on July 19.

According to the conditions of the plea agreement, Benzeevi will not face jail time. He’ll be under house confinement with an ankle monitor for 120 days at his own expense and will pay $2.4m in restitution, of which $2m will go to the Tulare Local Healthcare District and $400,000 will go to the Southern Inyo Healthcare District, where Benzeevi and Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) managed the Southern Inyo Hospital.

Benzeevi was also ordered to serve 420 hours of community service at any healthcare facility.

While the current plea agreement would have Benzeevi serve two years of probation in Los Angeles County after his sentencing, the district attorney’s office intends to ask for a year of jail time.

A statement from Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward says his office has “requested a year in custody,” but that it will “respect the Judge’s decision at the time of sentencing just as we did with the previous sentencing of co-defendant Alan Germany.”

Benzeevi, through HCCA, managed Tulare Regional Medical Center and other Tulare district properties. During that period, Benzeevi defrauded the Tulare district and the Southern Inyo district through a series of deals designed to benefit him and his company.

Facing similar charges is Bruce Greene, an attorney who represented both HCCA and the Tulare district.

Through his attorney, Greene rejected a plea agreement from Ward’s office in September and maintains his innocence. The State Bar suspended an ongoing disciplinary hearing against Greene pending the outcome of the criminal case against him.

42 counts will be dismissed

Benzeevi and co-defendants Germany and Greene were charged in August 2020; Germany previously pleaded “no contest” in October 2023. Originally, Benzeevi faced 46 felony and misdemeanor counts relating to embezzlement, fraud, conflicts of interest and violations of the Political Reform Act.

Friday’s plea deal saw Benzeevi decline to defend himself against eight of those charges. The remaining 42 charges will be dismissed at the time of sentencing on July 19.

The six felony counts represent various criminal conflicts of interest. Specifically, Benzeevi used Tulare’s money to fund a lawsuit against Dr. Abraham Betre, former head of the Tulare Regional Medical Executive Committee who claimed the committee had been wrongfully dismissed.

Benzeevi also created a line of credit for Inyo using Tulare’s funds, made loans directly to Inyo through a financing company he created, and issued promissory notes to Tulare secured by a deed on district property.

Additionally, Benzeevi failed to disclose campaign expenditures in a timely fashion – including funds used to pay Psy Group, a now-defunct private intelligence agency that attempted to influence the recall election of former Tulare board member Dr. Parmod Kumar – and used his official position for personal gain. Both are misdemeanor crimes.

If Benzeevi were convicted of all 46 original charges, he could have faced up to 44 years behind bars, though Sheltzer told Benzeevi that “there’s no way that any court is going to sentence you to 44 years in county jail,” under existing sentencing guidelines and Prop 47, which Tulare County Deputy District Attorney Trevor Holly agreed with.

The maximum Benzeevi could have served under the charges he pleaded no contest to today was five years and four months.

Sheltzer said that the court was concerned both with punishment, which he believed the felonies served, and restitution.

“Without this type of sentence getting the $2.4m in full would be extremely difficult,” he said.

The restitution amount – $2.4 million – matches the amount of funds that ended up in Benzeevi’s bank accounts after he executed a sale and leaseback of Tulare Regional’s equipment to Celtic Leasing, according to past court filings. Officials with the District Attorney’s office did not confirm whether that restitution amount was intentional or simply coincidental.

Getting those funds to the two districts will be a lengthy process: Benzeevi’s funds were frozen in the United States and in Israel. Holly told the court that he would work with officials at the Department of Justice to craft an order that would unfreeze the funds so that they can be used towards restitution.

Kirk Davis, an Assistant Tulare County District Attorney, spoke to the media after the hearing.

He avoided commenting on the Greene case, including the possibility that Benzeevi could provide testimony against Greene, beyond stating that Greene was “still active in the case, and [that] the litigation is ongoing.”

Davis also declined to comment on any possibility the convictions could impact Benzeevi’s medical license, stating that the medical board was in charge of those decisions. Benzeevi had to report to the California Medical Board at the time he was charged with multiple felonies and must do so again now that he has pleaded no contest.

Nina Marino, Benzeevi’s attorney, did not return a request for comment by publication time. If one is received, this article will be updated.

District attorney’s statement and local reaction

The Tulare County District Attorney’s office touted the plea deal as a win for Tulare County and the Tulare Local Healthcare District in a press release.

“Healthcare is truly a basic quality of life issue and the rural health care system in California is fragile. I view the Tulare Regional Medical Center as a vulnerable victim, and I am pleased the hospital and the citizens of Tulare have persevered to arrive at this significant day,” the statement continues. “Moving forward our efforts and resources will be focused on the remaining defendant in a combined quest for justice for these victims.”

Officials with the Tulare hospital district welcomed the news of Benzeevi’s plea.

“The resolution of this case is long overdue,” Mike Jamaica, a district board member said in a statement.

Kevin Northcraft, the district board’s president, said that he “expressed gratitude to the DA and the citizens who supported the process for their unwavering pursuit of justice considering the crimes committed by Benzeevi.”

Citizens for Hospital Accountability, a group that initially formed eight years ago to oppose Benzeevi’s management of the hospital, also applauded the news.

“Eight years ago, a group of concerned citizens banded together to become one voice called Citizens for Hospital Accountability. We chose our title with care, to reflect that we were a grassroots organization comprised of citizens from all backgrounds within Tulare Local Healthcare District who understood the importance of our local hospital and its rich tradition within our community. We realized that action was necessary to restore accountability and trust. Over the course of the next three years, it became much more. We waged, at times, a heated and ferocious battle against those who wanted to extract every last dime from our healthcare system to satisfy their own power and their own greed at the expense of our young, our old, our sick, our vulnerable and our poor,” the statement reads.

“To our common purpose, today is a monumental day. Benny Benzeevi has finally acknowledged his wrongdoings and is pleading no contest to multiple felonies and making restitution. He is liable for the damage he has done to Tulare. On this day, it isn’t just a saying that justice shall prevail, it is reality. There can be no celebration that any of this happened at all, but there is a celebration to know we have all helped to put an end to it, against all odds,” a statement from the group reads.

“We again wish to thank Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward, Assistant District Attorney David Alavezos, Supervising Deputy District Attorney and lead prosecutor Trevor Holly, Chief Investigator Lindy Gligorijevic, Assistant Chief Investigator Gregg White, former Tulare County investigator Rodney Klassen and all of the staff members who have worked tirelessly on this marathon of an investigation and to see it to completion. Your dedication is greatly appreciated and will not be forgotten. We will comment more specifically at the sentencing date, after we have digested the totality of today’s historic events.”

Winding road towards closure – literally and figuratively

HCCA came to Tulare in 2014 after prior management led the Tulare Local Healthcare District, which owns Tulare Regional, into financial losses and a tower construction project that remains unfinished today.

The district’s board searched for management partners, and multiple healthcare companies responded – including Adventist Health, which currently leases and operates Tulare Regional. The board instead settled on HCCA, though the consulting firm the board hired to advise it on the decision classified HCCA as an entirely unknown entity.

Initially, the partnership was touted as a rousing success, including audits which showed the hospital’s profitability and solvency had improved. A May 2016 guest column touted “24 consecutive months of profit,” “an annual return last year better than in the past twelve,” and a turnaround that was “recognized nationally.”

News of that success led HCCA to be tapped to take over the Southern Inyo Hospital in 2015 after Southern Inyo’s CEO and board resigned, and the hospital closed to the public. HCCA reopened it in March of 2016, and shepherded the Southern Inyo Healthcare District through a bankruptcy process.

Doctors in Tulare sounded the first alarms in 2016 after HCCA ousted the hospital’s existing Medical Executive Committee in what became a long-running court dispute that was only settled after HCCA ceased managing Tulare Regional.

Concerned community members began to band together and examine the HCCA-Tulare Regional deal more closely: Tulare’s contract with HCCA included provisions that moved all of Tulare’s employees over to HCCA and prohibited the district from hiring its own staff, required the district to pay an extra 30% “compensation premium” on top of an employee’s salary, and gave HCCA the ability to buy the hospital – after voter approval – with the option to defer that 30% premium towards a purchase.

The financial terms of the contract raised eyebrows: HCCA was granted a management fee of $2.7m per year, which rose yearly; on top of that, Tulare had to pay CFO Alan Germany’s salary, charged to the district from August 2014 to June 2017, which started at $39,000 monthly and rose to as high as $56,800 monthly.

At the Southern Inyo Hospital, less onerous terms and more independence were on the menu. The Inyo hospital board president at the time told a local media outlet that their contract was “different than the Tulare contract,” and that “there are no options to buy.”

The smaller hospital also paid a smaller management fee starting at $780,000 annually and got to keep a direct employer relationship with its employees.

Public distrust of the HCCA’s management was a key motivator in the failure of a 2016 bond initiative floated by the Tulare Local Healthcare District and HCCA to finish the hospital’s tower project.

The hospital’s operations and public image began to crumble after the loss: less than a month after the election, in September of 2016, HCCA acknowledged that some employees were laid off “in accordance with our planned and ongoing strategic realignment of the hospital’s operations.”

Reporting would find that as far back as November 2015, HCCA had left Tulare’s vendors unpaid, including $827k owed to a pharmaceutical vendor later repaid with a controversial line of credit, and $44k owed to a consulting vendor that specifically pointed out the irony of the hospital’s publicly-touted turnaround while it privately pled penury to its vendors.

By September 2017, voters had elected two board members – Northcraft and Jamaica – opposed to HCCA’s management of the hospital, and recalled Kumar, one of HCCA’s supporters, selecting Senovia Gutierrez to take his place.

The trio voted to take the hospital into bankruptcy after HCCA claimed the district owed it millions of dollars, missed payroll multiple times, and after Benzeevi told the board that HCCA would not continue to use its own funds to bankroll Tulare Regional’s operations.

The hospital closed on October 29, 2017, after HCCA laid off its employees. Tulare did not have a hospital until Adventist Health moved in and started operations almost a year later, on October 15, 2018.

To the east, in October 2017, Southern Inyo started the process to separate itself from HCCA, claiming in a court hearing that the company had mismanaged its finances and botched opportunities to earn easy revenue.

The first hints of an investigation into how Benzeevi, Germany and Greene conducted business at HCCA and Tulare Regional came in that same hearing, when Southern Inyo officials revealed the hospital was served with a search warrant by Tulare County investigators looking for evidence of transfers that had taken place between Tulare Regional and Southern Inyo.

The next month, a warrant was served at Tulare Regional – investigators were at the hospital for “well over 33 hours straight” collecting evidence, including emails, business records, and other data. The warrants spiraled into what Ward called “the largest investigation ever undertaken by the district attorney’s office” in 2018, including warrants served at Benzeevi’s home, the eventual freezing of Benzeevi’s bank accounts in the US and internationally, and the three criminal indictments.

The Voice will continue to cover the proceedings as Greene’s case continues in the Tulare County Superior Court and the California State Bar Court.

The post Former Tulare hospital CEO pleads no contest to felonies, misdemeanors, will pay $2.4m and likely avoid jail appeared first on Valley Voice.

Voters in the Tulare Local Health Care District (TLHCD) may be asked again to approve funding for the stalled hospital expansion project.

Bond Plan Doesn’t Raise Taxes

At their meeting Wednesday, January 24, TLHCD directors approved a resolution that may eventually lead to voters approving or disapproving $50 million in bond funding to finish the basement, first and second floors of the hospital’s tower expansion project that now stands half-finished.

Begun a decade ago, the expansion project stalled after publicly-approved funding of $85 million ran out with only the shell of the four-story tower completed. An attempt to gain voter approval for added bond funding by a previous board failed.

The current estimate to complete the entire project is $100 million; however, the basement and first two stories could be made usable for around $65 million. District leaders estimate about 75% of that cost – $50 million – could be covered by the issuance of so-called general obligation (GO) bonds.

GO bonds raise funds with repayments coming from guaranteed future revenue, meaning taxes would not be raised to cover their cost. Voter approval would still be required before the district could issue any bonds.

Adventist Health Will Not Participate

The board’s consideration of bond funding comes after leadership at Adventist Health – which currently operates the TLHCD’s hospital as Adventist Tulare – recently made it clear that while the company remains committed to Tulare, it will not help pay to complete the tower.

That led to reluctance by TLHCD director Jevon Price when it came to approving an exploration of bond funding to finish the tower. Price wants to know Adventist’s plans for Tulare, whether it will continue to operate the hospital, before moving ahead.

“Obviously, Adventist sees that this (helping fund tower construction) is a potential money loss,” he said. “We need to be able to know what the plan is, if there’s going to be a need for the project to move forward immediately. … We just found this situation (Adventist’s reluctance to fund the tower project) is happening.”

TLHCD president Kevin Northcraft said the board would not move forward without a long-term guarantee from Adventist Health.

“They have to commit to the lease, to the payments, before we’re going to do this,” he said of the possibility of issuing bonds.

Tulare Needs Tower Finished No Matter What

Even without a firm commitment to operate Tulare’s hospital by Adventist Health or another management firm, TLHCD CEO Randy Dodd says the tower must be finished to keep the district viable.

“Let’s just say the worst-case scenario happens and the sky falls and Adventist Health leaves,” he said. “If we don’t have a tower to offer somebody else to come to this community, we don’t have a hospital.”

Once the tower is at least partially complete, including finishing new operating rooms, Tulare will be able to attract more surgeons and their patients, Dodd said. At a pair of meetings with executives from Adventist Health, Dodd said they made it clear Tulare’s aged facilities are keeping doctors reluctant to use Adventist Tulare.

“The doctors are the issue, and the doctors are probably not going to come back from Visalia to what we have currently,” he said. “This becomes a physician magnet once we complete that (the tower), (it) becomes a beacon of success to the community.”

Price expressed his concern that the number of patients treated at Adventist Tulare hasn’t returned to levels seen before the hospital closed temporarily. Northcraft, however, said the number of patients using the hospital is climbing and will continue to do so.

“When you close down a hospital, you (patients) have to go somewhere else, you establish,” Northcraft said. “The doctors left. The doctors control what hospital gets used. That may have been a one-year loss, but it takes more than one year to get all that back. But it’s happening.”

Earthquake Risk Could Close Hospital

Pending changes in state seismic requirements for hospitals also have to be considered. At present, Tulare’s hospital does not meet the upgraded standards, which have been repeatedly delayed by the legislature.

“I think we have to do this also relative to the earthquake safety code that is going to get kicked down the road to 2030, likely, but it’s still going to become law at some point,” Dodd said. “That hospital doesn’t meet code.”

The tower expansion is intended to meet those new standards. Yet that need to upgrade didn’t stop voters from blocking the sale of GO bonds in 2016. Northcraft, however, believes that failure happened because voters had lost trust in the previous board of directors.

Current board members Northcraft, Michael Jamaica and Xavier Avila all campaigned against passage of the 2016 bond issue.

“We all campaigned against it because they didn’t say how they were going to use the money,” Nothercraft said.

Bond Resolution Contains No Spending Details

Another objection voiced by Price was the lack of description of what a future bond issue would pay for. His concerns were echoed by Albert Aguilar, a one-time member of the committee tasked with overseeing the original tower construction bonds.

“This resolution to me is very ambiguous. You’re talking about you’re going to be financing ‘certain capital expenditures.’ What expenditures? What part of the tower are we talking about doing?” he said. “It’s not indicated on here (the resolution). You make reference to Exhibit A. Exhibit A is blank. All Exhibit A says is, ‘The project consists of completion of a portion of the hospital tower.’ What portion are we talking about?”

Bud Levine, a consultant with the public finance management firm Wulff, Hansen & Co. that is advising the district, said the ambiguity is intentional. The details will be added if the project advances.

“That’s all we know at the moment, because your project hasn’t been completely defined yet,” he said. “Subsequent resolutions when you move forward then would identify much more specifically what you’re going to be financing and what the terms and the structure of the bonds will be.”

Northcraft described Exhibit A as a catchall.

“The description in Exhibit A really just provides the umbrella for all the things that might happen underneath the tower that could be included in these revenue bonds,” he said.

No Plan to Issue Bonds Yet

While the TLHCD board members are thinking about how to pay for the tower’s completion, there isn’t a plan to issue bonds yet. The resolution approved on Wednesday only allows the district to reimburse itself for development costs incurred now if bonds are issued later.

Passing a resolution of intent to issue bonds, whether the bonds are sold or not, could save the district money.

“All this resolution does is preserve your rights when and if you should ever issue bonds to reimburse the development costs that you incur developing out what the project will consist of, the scope of the project, the amount of the project and those various areas,” said Ray Nelsen, also of Wulff, Nelsen & Co. “If you wait to adopt this resolution for a period of months or a year, any money you spend in that interim you cannot recover.”

The resolution passed Wednesday is also symbolic. It demonstrates to community members the district is still intent on finishing the expansion project with a minor action.

“This isn’t a vote to start spending money. This isn’t a vote to start finishing the tower,” said TLHCD director Avila. “This is a vote to get the financing together. That’s all it is.”

Resolution 920 passed with a 3-1 split vote. Price voted against the resolution, and board member Kathy Nesper was absent.

Board Approves Pair of Tower Projects

While planning for how to pay for future work on the tower continues, two projects received the board’s OK during a special meeting held Thursday, February 1.

The board hired a contractor to complete one side of the interior walls of the tower. The district has already purchased the materials needed to complete the work, voting Thursday to hire a firm to do the job.

Only one side of the walls will be finished, allowing future work on their interior components.

Also approved by the board is the installation of the tower’s elevators and dumbwaiters.

After a change in state law in 2023, the TLHCD directors learned the tower project could lose state approval if less than 10% of the project is complete each year. The projects approved on Thursday should insure TLHCD’s compliance.

The post Tulare hospital board ponders bonds to finish stalled tower appeared first on Valley Voice.

A California State Bar complaint against Greene was submitted by the district’s Board of Directors in March of 2020.

State Bar Alleges ‘Moral Turpitude, Dishonesty, Corruption’

The State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel, in a filing made in the State Bar Court of Los Angeles on September 29, asserts Greene knowingly profited from a direct conflict of interest arising from his simultaneous representation of the Tulare district as well as the contractor it hired to run Tulare Regional Medical Center, Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA).

Greene faces eight counts stemming from alleged conflicts of interest that occurred when he was representing both the Tulare district and HCCA, as well as HCCA’s owner Dr. Yorai ‘Benny’ Benzeevi.

Prosecutors claim that Greene acted to benefit Benzeevi, himself and his law firm, BakerHostetler, at the expense of the taxpayers in the TLHCD.

Greene acted, State Bar lawyers allege, with “moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption” when he allegedly helped Benzeevi and HCCA obtain a $3 million loan secured against district assets: approximately $500,000 of those funds later went to his firm to cover past due legal bills, according to the filing and prior Voice reporting.

The Bar’s attorneys pulled no punches while describing the allegations against Greene in their initial notice of disciplinary charges:

“Between approximately March 2017 and September 2017, respondent acted with a self-interested and corrupt motive to financially benefit himself, his firm, and one client, Dr. Yorai Benzeevi, at the expense of another client, the Tulare Local Healthcare District (doing business as) Tulare Regional Medical Center, when he interfered with the local electoral process for the district’s Board of Directors to facilitate an unauthorized purchase-leaseback transaction between the district and Celtic Leasing Corporation, the proceeds of which were used to pay respondent’s outstanding legal fees for the district (approximately $500,000) and to pay debts owed by the District to a company owned by Dr. Benzeevi, Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, LLC (approximately $2.4 million).”

Former TLHCD Board Members Initially Approved Dual Representation

The initial filing from the State Bar states that former TLHCD directors Sherrie Bell, Laura Gadke, Dr. Parmod Kumar, Richard Torrez and Linda Wilbourn, who comprised the TLHCD Board of Directors in 2016, initially backed Greene representing both the district and Benzeevi’s companies.

“Like the board that selected HCCA to manage the district, these five board members generally supported Dr. Benzeevi’s approach to managing the district and also supported HCCA’s hiring of respondent (Greene) and (BakerHostetler) as the District’s general counsel.”

The 21-page notice of disciplinary hearing gives a blow-by-blow account of attempts to retake control of the TLHCD and the allegedly illegal resistance to relinquish that power on the part of Greene and Benzeevi.

It also details how Greene helped Benzeevi sell district property worth $3 million to Celtic Leasing, agreed the district would pay Celtic $82,000 a month to lease it back, then allegedly funneled income from the deal through another of Benzeevi’s companies and into Benzeevi’s pockets and those of BakerHostetler. The deal was made after a newly-seated TLHCD board had already fired Greene and his firm.

Nine Charges Against Greene

In total, Greene faces nine counts in the hearing. Four of the charges are for his apparent conflicts of interest, the details of which are included in the State Bar’s filing. The claims allege Greene created conflicts by representing Benzeevi and his companies, as well as the Tulare district, at the same time.

Prosecutors claim Greene knowingly and repeatedly acted in favor of one client – Benzeevi – against the interests of another, TLHCD.

The remaining four counts detail Greene’s alleged “moral turpitude” displayed in “deceptive and oppressive acts.” Those acts include preventing the seating of an elected member of the TLHCD board of directors; facilitation of the Celtic purchase-leaseback agreement; a breach of duty of loyalty to his client, and simple corruption.

Details included in the State Bar’s allegations appear damning:

“Between on or about July 26, 2017, and on or about September 26, 2017, respondent intentionally acted with a corrupt and self-interested motive to the detriment of his client or former client, the District, when he caused the Celtic Leasing purchase-leaseback transaction to be finalized, allowed $3 million in proceeds from that transaction to be placed in a bank account controlled by Dr. Benzeevi, and caused respondent’s own law firm’s fees in the amount of $509,727.93 to be paid from those proceeds.”

A ninth charge alleges Greene misled a judge in a 2017 writ of mandate case brought by the Tulare County District Attorney against Torrez that sought to force him to recognize Senovia Gutierrez as a board member.

At the time, Gutierrez had been elected but Torrez did not recognize her as a board member after a board agenda did not declare her one.

The filing claims that Greene misled a judge when he swore in a declaration that attorney Cary Davidson supported such an interpretation of the elections code “when that statement was false, and respondent knew the statement was false, and thereby sought to mislead the judge or judicial officer,” the filing reads.

Greene’s Attorney Asks for Delay

A pretrial teleconference in the action against Greene is set for 9:45 a.m. on February 5, 2024 before Judge Yvette Roland in the State Bar Court of Los Angeles. Also pending is a voluntary settlement teleconference with Roland presiding set for 9:30 a.m. on December 12.

However, Greene’s attorneys have requested the State Bar disciplinary hearing be delayed.

On November 30, Greene’s attorneys James Murphy and Harlan Watkins asked the court to “abate” the disciplinary hearing. The delay would allow “resolution of the parallel and ongoing criminal proceeding in Tulare County against (Greene) and two other key witnesses (Benzeevi and former HCCA CFO Alan Germany) in this matter. …”

On November 9, Germany pleaded no contest to two charges in the Tulare County prosecution, one felony and one misdemeanor criminal count. In exchange for his plea, Germany will face two years of probation, was required to write a letter of apology to his victims and paid $150,000 restitution. He faced up to three years behind bars.

Greene declined a plea offer made to him by the Tulare County District Attorney’s office, according to his attorney in the criminal case.

Should the proceeding move beyond the settlement hearing and request for abatement, Greene’s disciplinary hearing will start at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, February 27 before Judge Dennis Saab. Saab’s court has set aside 10 days for Greene’s hearing.

Greene’s Lawyers Claim Victimhood

Included in the motion to abate the disciplinary hearing is an assertion Greene was actually the victim of political plotting by members of the group Citizens for Hospital Accountability and the board members the group helped elect.

“At its core, this action is the result of a political dispute between TLHCD’s current and former board members,” Greene’s lawyers wrote.

Greene’s attorneys Murphy and Watkins claim the individuals who worked to oust the former board members were intent on throwing their political weight around. They chose Greene as their target.

“Once Citizens for Hospital Accountability took control of the District in 2017, it used its newfound political power and clout to punish its political rivals by, among other things, initiating civil litigation against BakerHostetler, (Greene) and several former board members, and fomenting criminal investigation and ultimately charges against several of its perceived rivals in Tulare County, including (Greene).”

The ongoing criminal prosecution of Greene and co-defendant Benzeevi in Tulare County will continue at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 12. He will appear before Judge Michael Sheltzer for a hearing on motions to “exclude evidence, cease review and seal.”

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He was ordered by Tulare County Superior Court Judge Michael Sheltzer to write the letter as part of a plea agreement finalized on November 9, and the letter was presented to the board during closed session on Wednesday, November 29.

Germany also paid a court ordered restitution of $100,000 to the Tulare district and $50,000 to the Southern Inyo Healthcare District. Germany served as the Chief Restructuring Officer at the Southern Inyo Hospital, which also had a management agreement with HCCA.

Charges were filed against Germany, HCCA CEO Yorai “Benny” Benzeevi, and attorney Bruce Greene in August of 2020. Germany’s charges including a misdemeanor charge of failing to file Form 700, the financial disclosure required of all public officials, and a more serious felony violation of conflicts of interest in a contract involving his employers.

Germany was facing a maximum of three years in prison.

In his brief letter Germany said, “I apologize for and regret my involvement in the 2016 Line of Credit between Tulare Local Healthcare District and Southern Inyo Healthcare District. I also apologize for and regret my failure to file a Form 700 which would have disclosed my personal financial interests.”

Thank you for the opportunity to have worked with Tulare Local Healthcare District from 2014-2017.

I recall the farmlands of Tulare County and remember the tremendous work ethic of its residents. I strove to emulate that daily as I worked on behalf of the District.

I apologize for and regret my involvement in the 2016 Line of Credit between Tulare Local Healthcare District and Southern Inyo Healthcare District.

I also apologize for and regret my failure to file a Form 700 which would have disclosed my personal financial interests.

I wish Tulare Local Healthcare District the best in the future.

Sincerely,

Alan Germany

Germany avoids prison time

Germany left HCCA in 2017 and has since moved to Tucson, Ariz. where he found other financial work.

When he was charged in August 2020, he lost that job and has been unemployed since. His hope, according to the hearing, was to avoid jail and get back to work so he could support his family.

During a hearing on October 3, 2023, Germany accepted a deal in which he would plead “no contest” to the crime of conflict of interest, a felony, and a failure to file a statement of economic interest, a misdemeanor.

The maximum prison sentence for the conflict of interest charge is 22 years. Because he pled “no contest” the most time he faced in prison was 3 years.

At the November 9 hearing, Deputy District Attorney Trevor Holly said that it was the district attorney’s office’s position that Germany should serve 365 days in jail.

Holly said, “We wanted a 365-day sentence to show the seriousness of the crime.”

Holly brought up the “position of trust” as another reason for wanting Germany to face jail time.

“Normally, when we have the position of trust factor, it’s usually somebody who was an accountant at a private firm or was a cashier or something of that sort, but here we had someone who was a public official of a taxpayer-owned institution. That is the highest position of trust or one of the highest positions of trust in our society,” said Holly.

“And, again, the punishment needs to fit the crime, the seriousness of the breach of the trust.”
Holly also wanted prison time for Germany to serve as deterrence. “I don’t even know how many boards we have in the county. I suspect it’s over 100. And every single person on the boards and every single person that works those boards has to be careful of conflicts of interest. In Mr. Germany’s case, it wasn’t just that he had a conflict of interest, but, as we pointed out, he sided with the paymaster in the instance offense.”

Germany’s attorney, Kevin Rooney of Fresno’s Hammerschmidt Law Corporation, responded to the issue of deterrence saying, “It’s going to impact him forever. It’s on the Internet. It’s never going away.”

“Nobody wants to be where Mr. Germany is. And Mr. Germany never intended to hurt a district, never intended to abuse anything. He was doing his best in extraordinarily trying circumstances to keep both these problematic health care districts operating,” said Rooney.

Rooney added that Germany had never committed a crime and added, “I don’t think there’s very many human beings who have lived as law-abiding life as he has, let alone very many in front of the Court that have led that kind of law-abiding life.”

During the trial Rooney said that a witness attested Germany’s “tremendous moral character.”

He added that Germany made a huge effort to keep the hospitals, especially Tulare Regional, operating and serving people. Rooney added in so doing Germany delayed his own compensation.

Rooney concluded, “Mr. Germany does not need and it’s not fair and correct to have a custodial part of his sentence.”

“Mr. Germany has admitted the conflict of interest. I’m not trying to run away from it. But the idea that this was corrupt, that it was something like that, it’s just not supported by the evidence, and it’s not right.”

Holly responded, “As I pointed out in the plea, we do concede Mr. Germany was the least culpable person of the trio that have been charged. He didn’t have money directly in his pocket. But the case kind of points out why the conflicts of interest are actually illegal, because the pressure that Mr. Germany faced by having to please the guy who signs his paychecks affected his judgment on how to do these contracts. This was not a good deal for Tulare, and everybody knew that, and they did it anyways.”

At the end of the hearing Judge Sheltzer sentenced Germany to two years probation, 540 hours of community service, a restitution payment of $100,000 to TLHCD and $50,000 to Inyo Hospital District, and ordered Germany to write a letter of apology to the residents of Tulare’s hospital district.

If Germany violates probation he will have to serve six months in prison.

“If you take an otherwise law-abiding citizen who appeared for all other purposes to be a moral, upstanding, productive member of society, to turn around and put him in the Tulare County jail for a year just doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m sorry,” said Judge Sheltzer.

This closes a chapter of TLHCD’s relationship with Germany, but Benzeevi and Greene’s cases are still working their way through the court system. Greene is also facing possible discipline in a separate case before the State Bar Court of California.

The post Former Tulare hospital CFO avoids jail time, pays restitution, writes letter of apology appeared first on Valley Voice.

Germany Pleads No Contest

Alan Germany – who served as CFO for both TLHCD and the management company that led the district into bankruptcy, Health Care Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) – entered a plea of no contest to two criminal charges before Judge Michael B. Sheltzer in Tulare County Superior Court on Tuesday, October 3.

Germany was ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the victims of his crimes, and he could potentially serve time behind bars. His sentencing hearing begins at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, November 6.

The restitution funds must be on deposit in his attorney’s trust account when Germany’s sentence is handed down.

“They need to be there before they walk in for sentencing, and then the court can direct him (Germany’s attorney) to make payments to the victims out of the funds he has in that check,” Deputy District Attorney Trevor Holly said.

The former executive faces sentencing for two of the 46 original counts filed against him in August of 2020. They include a misdemeanor charge of failing to file the Form 700 financial disclosure required of all public officials, and a more serious felony violation of Government Code 1090.generated by Germany’s unlawful conflicts of interest in a contract involving his employers.

Cooperation Led to Plea Bargain

Holly described the considerations that led his office to offer Germany a break. The prosecuting attorney’s reasoning places much of the blame for Germany’s wrongdoing on his former boss and co-defendant, Dr. Yorai Benny Benzeevi.

“Mr. Germany at the time was (an) independent contractor employed by Dr. Benzeevi, and was operating under his authority,” Holly said. “Mr. Germany did not directly take TLHCD funds for his own benefit. He had (a) conflict of interest due to his employment at HCCA, but he did not take money and put it directly into his own pocket.”

Specifically, Holly told the court Germany never intended that funds from a $3m leasing agreement with a third party would be diverted to pay TLHCD debts owed to HCCA.

Benzeevi was HCCA’s CEO and president, a role he held while also serving as CEO of TLHCD. He, too, is facing charges stemming from his multiple alleged conflicts of interest and misuse of authority.

“Emails established that Mr. Germany had planned on spending the Celtic Leasing funds on necessary medical supplies and other critical expenses necessary to keep treating patients, and not for the funds to go to unsecured HCCA debt,” Holly said.

He also cited Germany’s cooperative attitude as another consideration in offering a plea deal.

“Mr. Germany accepted responsibility for his actions at an early stage of the proceedings,” Holly said.

Conviction a Warning to Other Government Contractors

The deputy district attorney also made it clear he believes that convicting Germany for his mishandling of TLHCD finances will serve to deter others performing government contract work from repeating his crimes.

“We believe that a felony conviction in this case would be sufficient to deter not only Mr. Germany from future misconduct, but also other contractors who work for various government boards in the county from misconduct,” he told the court.

Under the terms of the plea bargain, all other charges against Germany are dropped. Charges stemming from the events surrounding the Celtic Leasing contract were dismissed entirely, while the remainder were dropped under a so-called “Harvey waiver.”

Sheltzer said damages caused by alleged crimes associated with those charges will still be taken into consideration at the time Germany is sentenced.

“A Harvey waiver means that even though you have a stipulated amount of restitution, you need to understand that the court can consider for the purpose of sentencing all of the counts against you in terms of loss to any victim in the case,” the judge told Germany.

Holly told the court that his office reserved the right to argue for a desired sentence at the sentencing hearing.

Citizens for Hospital Accountability, a group of Tulare citizens that advocated against HCCA’s alleged mismanagement of the hospital, celebrated the news in a statement to the Valley Voice.

“Six years ago, Citizens for Hospital Accountability members brought our concerns and suspicions to the Tulare County District Attorney’s office. With Alan Germany’s no contest plea to a felony and a misdemeanor, we witnessed in a court of law the beginning of the admission of culpability by HCCA executives,” a statement from the group read. “We eagerly await the upcoming preliminary hearing on December 12, as the next step toward justice for the taxpayers of the Tulare Local Healthcare district and the employees of HCCA who have been wronged. Our appreciation and thanks to District Attorney Tim Ward, Mr. Trevor Holly and the prosecution team for their continued efforts on behalf of the people of the district.”

Possible Jail Time for Germany

Negotiations between the DA and Germany’s attorney leading to a plea agreement included the chance Germany might avoid time in custody. Judge Shelzer, for his part, is disinclined to allow the defendant to escape a period in state prison.

Sheltzer has sole authority for making the final determination of Germany’s sentence.

“Under the terms that the court has indicated, which is that I would grant you probation in this matter and that there would be an alternative-type sentence in terms of actual custodial time, it is not my understanding based on the facts that that would be appropriate,” Sheltzer said.

He will also seek further information about Germany prior to sentencing him.

“In addition, I will be sending this matter out to (the Tulare County Probation Department) for a full report that will give me whatever additional information about you and the circumstances of the offenses that will give me some guidance in fashioning an appropriate sentence,” Sheltzer said.

Finally, while Germany has been making court appearances by video teleconference, Shelzer ordered him to appear in person for the sentencing phase.

“Mr. Germany, I have advised your counsel and you this morning that I will require your personal appearance at the time of sentencing,” Shelzer said.

Germany Could Testify Against Co-Defendants

In pleading no contest, Germany surrendered several of his rights as a criminal defendant. They include the right to a hearing to show cause for prosecution, the right to a jury trial and his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

This does not mean he must testify against the two remaining co-defendants: Benzeevi and Bruce Greene, the former legal counsel for TLHCD and HCCA.

Greene is also facing possible professional disciplinary action from the California State Bar.

Germany presenting evidence, however, remains a possibility.

“Now will Mr. Germany pop up testifying at some point?” Holly said in a post-hearing interview. “Maybe, maybe not. We’ll have to see.”

Greene Ignores Plea Offer

While an arrangement was made with Germany, his co-defendant Greene was not inclined to cooperate with the prosecution.

In fact, Greene and his attorney never responded to the offer from the DA.

“I never received an official rejection of the plea (offer), so it just expired on (September 22) with no communication,” DA Holly told the court.

Attorney Jeff Steinfeld, who represents Greene, said he believed a response was not required.

“It was our understanding the offer didn’t exist beyond the expiration date, but to clarify we are not accepting the offer the people made,” he said.

Holly said his office made a generous plea offer to Greene. Not accepting it was a mistake, he said.

“I think I’ve made a very lenient offer to Mr. Greene, that he should have accepted,” Holly said. “But he decided he didn’t want to. And, you know, that happens all the time.”

No Plea Deal for Benzeevi

Coming to terms with Germany took several months, with negotiations starting in July.

No plea agreement was offered to Benzeevi due to Benzeevi’s recent change in attorneys, Holly said.

“In order to really even talk about an offer, you have to be familiar enough with the evidence,” Holly said. “Otherwise, it’s ineffective.”

Benzeevi making a bargain was talked over, but ultimately talks led nowhere.

“We had a brief discussion,” Holly said. “We’re so far apart that I don’t know that there’ll really be any talks there.”

The topic remains open to negotiation with Benzeevi and his attorney Nina Marino, but Holly is not optimistic.

“I offered to talk with her (Marino) about it, but we’re a long ways apart now,” he said.

Marino, for her part, is ready to move ahead with a preliminary hearing.

“The idea would be to at least get this show on the road,” she said.

December Hearing set for Benzeevi, Greene

After more than a dozen aborted attempts to begin preliminary hearings for the co-defendants since charges were first levied three years ago, a firm date for its start has finally been set.

The court will meet only three days a week to allow for travel time. Nine days have been set aside so far for the proceedings: December 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21, and January 9, 10 and 11.

More dates can be added if needed, however, a two-month break would be required so Marino can defend another of her clients during a month-long political corruption trial in Hawaii. Hearing dates would resume in April.

DA Holly originally estimated the hearing would take at least three months to complete, based on a five-day-a-week schedule. Despite the reduction to three-day weekly sessions, he now believes the process could take as little as seven to eight weeks. Removing Germany as a co-defendant, he said, will shorten the process.

“It shortens it for sure by cross examinations, which will shave off at least a week,” he said. “Right now, I’m going through the evidence and removing the evidence that was only pertinent to Mr. Germany. But you know so much of the evidence is cross-admissible, right? So I don’t really know how much evidence we’re taking out for that.”

All estimates on the hearing’s length, he said, were informed guesses.

Dozens of Witnesses to Testify

According to Holly, investigators interviewed more than 250 potential witnesses. He now has 81 witnesses he intends to bring to the stand for the preliminary hearing, and he expects more than that during a jury trial.

A jury trial, should it come to that, would not happen for a year or two, Holly said.

“The defense has many, many, many mechanisms available to them to continue and prolong the trial,” he said.

Shelzer ordered all parties to be present for the preliminary hearing in December. However, both Greene and Benzeevi claim attending would create a burden for them. Greene’s attorney said his client has “an issue with his son at home,” while Benzeevi’s attorney said her client could be fired for missing too much work.

“Dr. Benzeevi would probably lose his job if he was going to be gone from his job three days every week,” Marino said.

Both attorneys suggested their clients attend via teleconference. Sheltzer said he would consider their requests.

In an aside to discuss Benzeevi’s finances, Marino reported her client had been involved in an auto accident and received an insurance payout as a result. The funds were spent by Benzeevi to purchase a new vehicle, she told the court.

A Sense of Relief

Despite the weight of the matter at hand, most of the parties involved seemed pleased to finally begin assessing the criminal charges against Benzeevi and Greene in open court with evidence and witness testimony.

Judge Sheltzer seemed particularly happy with the progress made this week.

“Unless I hear otherwise, I’m planning on starting the preliminary hearing as indicated today,” he said at the end of the court session while he wiped his forehead dramatically with the back of his hand. “Whew! Right?”

“Right!” Marino responded.

Tony Maldonado contributed to this report.

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