← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Gabrielle
Thread ID: 20532 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-10-05
2005-10-05 21:09 | User Profile
KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - A Kansas husband and wife who ran a psychotherapy practice went on trial on Tuesday on charges that they kept mentally ill people as slaves, forced them to perform sex acts on videotape and then billed Medicare nearly $1 million for the "therapy."
Prosecutors charged that Arlan Kaufman, 68, and his wife Linda Kaufman, 62, spent 18 years taking advantage of patients entrusted to their care. The couple ran a residential care facility in Newton, Kansas, where they worked with at least 20 mentally ill individuals from 1980 until 2004.
Jury selection began Tuesday for an expected five-week trial in U.S. District Court in Wichita.
Authorities are seeking to prove that while the couple was billing relatives and insurers for therapy, rent, utilities and food, they were forcing the residents to engage in hard manual labor in the nude on a farm the couple owned outside of town.
Prosecutors charged the residents were also forced to engage in a variety of sexually explicit acts, including masturbating, fondling each other and shaving each other's genitals, much of which was videotaped.
Patients were physically injured or restrained if they resisted, authorities charged.
Prosecutors have filed 33 criminal counts against the Kaufmans including charges of forced labor, involuntary servitude, health care fraud, mail fraud and obstruction of a federal audit.
The Kaufmans submitted just under $1 million in claims to Medicare from 1991 through 2000 and were paid $216,906, authorities said.
Defense attorneys for the Kaufmans declined to comment. The couple faces more than 200 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1182549[/url]
2005-10-07 05:34 | User Profile
Gabby
Is this a great country, or what? :cry:
That the system is so full of loopholes that such a mess can be perpetrated is a marvel to me, and while I cannot condone unethical behavior like this, it just ain't right, I have to tip my cap to those perverts for their sheer gall in thinking they could get away with it. Brass balls like that is what made Manifest Destiny possible.
Oh, if these charges are true, let them swing from a live oak tree.
AE
[QUOTE=Gabrielle] KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - A Kansas husband and wife who ran a psychotherapy practice went on trial on Tuesday on charges that they kept mentally ill people as slaves, forced them to perform sex acts on videotape and then billed Medicare nearly $1 million for the "therapy."
Authorities are seeking to prove that while the couple was billing relatives and insurers for therapy, rent, utilities and food, they were forcing the residents to engage in hard manual labor in the nude on a farm the couple owned outside of town.
Prosecutors charged the residents were also forced to engage in a variety of sexually explicit acts, including masturbating, fondling each other and shaving each other's genitals, much of which was videotaped.
Patients were physically injured or restrained if they resisted, authorities charged.
The Kaufmans submitted just under $1 million in claims to Medicare from 1991 through 2000 and were paid $216,906, authorities said. [url="http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1182549"]http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1182549[/url][/QUOTE]
2005-10-07 07:13 | User Profile
Revolting.