The case against Meisy Angelica Zamora, who is accused of conspiring with her husband, a local doctor accused of defrauding health insurers, is moving forward thanks to a federal judge’s ruling Wednesday.
In her second appearance in court, Zamora’s attorney, Christopher Sully, attempted to argue there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against his client.
In arguing there was a case to be made against her, U.S. Attorney Andrew Swartz called Special Agent Joshua Bley to the witness stand to during Wednesday’s probable cause hearing.
Bley presented the allegations against Zamora detailed in the criminal complaint, which stated that between 2000 and 2018, she held a supervisory role in her husband’s medical practices and allegedly participated in a scheme to provide unnecessary treatment to patients, defrauding health insurers.
Employees from the doctor’s office told investigators that they raised complaints with Zamora about having to meet quotas for medical procedures due to fear of raising them with her husband, and that employees were instructed to create false and fictitious medical records in response to grand jury subpoenas served on the medical practice in January and March 2017, according to the compliant.
During cross examination, Sully questioned Bley’s first-hand knowledge of the situation, to which Sully testified that he did not conduct the interviews with the six different office employees, whose interviews provided the basis for the criminal complaint.
Sully also questioned whether any of the employees had said Zamora herself had falsified billing records or had dealt with patients directly. Bley responded that none had indicated as much, with only one employee alleging that Zamora had falsified records.
The judge agreed there was sufficient evidence to allow the case to move forward citing her knowledge of running a medical practice and her awareness of billing practices and employees’ complaints, according to their interviews with investigators.
After the judge’s ruling, the attorneys began to make their arguments on whether she should continue to be held without bond.
As part of their case, the government submitted audio recordings of phone calls between Zamora and her husband, who is being held without bond at the East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa.
However, the judge recessed the court proceedings for the day to allow Sully to have the defense’s own translator review the conversations which were in Spanish.
Zamora’s detention hearing will resume Thursday morning.
