Physician sentenced for evading taxes

EL MONTE - A physician accused of fraudulently billing Medicare in 2003 and 2004 was ordered last week to pay California more than a half-million dollars in back taxes as part of a probationary sentence.Deputy District Attorney Amy Suehiro said Norwalk Superior Court Judge Patrick T. Meyers also placed Thomas Evans Mitchell Jr., 65, on five years of formal probation and ordered him to perform 350 hours of community service. A Norwalk jury convicted Mitchell in November of two counts of state tax evasion and deadlocked 11 to 1 for guilt on a third. The third count was dismissed. The prosecutor said the case involved what she told the jury was a "cut and paste clinic" - Clinica Medica in El Monte - that would cut and paste Mitchell's letterhead to another bill from another clinic. The bill would be sent to Medicare for services never performed, she said, including expensive diagnostic tests. During the trial, Suehiro presented evidence that Mitchell received $1.8 million for a three-month period in which the alleged Medicare fraud occurred. She said the doctor and his wife purchased a $1.29 million home in North Hollywood during the same time period.

********** Published: Febuary 7, 2013 - Volume 11 - Issue 43