CLINTON —
New developments in both cases relating to the EMS settlement have emerged that change the timeline for both cases.
Last week, the city was granted an extension to produce expert witnesses in its suit against Hopkins & Huebner, P.C. and Michael C. Walker.
This week, the case against the city filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa on behalf of The Citizens for Open Government in regards to the same EMS settlement has been removed from the court docket.
The city requested an extension of time to disclose expert witnesses in the lawsuit against Hopkins and Huebner until Feb. 15, 2103 instead of the previously set date of Oct. 19. Defendants filed a resistance to the city’s motion for extension on Aug. 29.
The city in March filed suit against its former attorneys, Hopkins & Huebner, P.C., claiming that the firm negligently failed to properly and adequately analyze a 2010 Emergency Medical Services billing case.
As a result of this alleged negligence, the city entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and whistleblower Timothy Schultheis that will require the city to pay a fine of $4.5 million over the course of 10 years.
According to court documents filed Sept. 5, the city must review the document production, including the potential review of more than 15,000 ambulance run reports per year over a six-year period of time because the city may need to retain an ambulance coding expert.
The city must also review deposition transcripts, schedules and take depositions of several additional witnesses, depose other lawyers from the Hopkins & Huebner firm and have the experts review those transcripts. Once depositions are under way, court documents state, the city may need to retain and consult two or more additional expert witnesses.
In the same court documents, the city claimed it would be prejudiced if it did not receive a reasonable time extension.
“Defendants are trying to put the City in an unfair pressure cooker and force it to condense all of its fact discovery into the month of September, complete fact discovery by the end of September and disclose its experts by October 19, 2012,” court documents state. The documents go on to state the city would be prejudiced if it was forced to complete its fact discovery within one month.
The city was granted an extension to designate expert witnesses until Jan. 4, 2013. Judge Nancy Tabor cited the complexity of the case and the extensive discovery as well as the trial date being more than a year away in her order granting the extension.
ACLU SUIT
In another turn of events, the case against the city filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa to shed light on a series of closed sessions where the $4.5 million EMS settlement was discussed that took place from 2009 to 2010 has been removed from the court docket.
The Sept. 25 hearing was cancelled in order to let City Attorney Jeff Farwell turn documents over to the court to be reviewed in private to determine if they should be turned over to the ACLU, according to ACLU Legal Director Randall Wilson.
“Our concern is that we have no knowledge of those records being turned into the court,” Wilson said.
While there is not a set deadline for Farwell to turn over the records to the court, there will be if they are not delivered soon, Wilson said.
“I share the frustration with the citizens of Clinton about not getting the truth of this story into the public,” Wilson said.
Farwell was not available for comment on either case.
Clinton
September 14, 2012
EMS court dates change
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