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Court overturns state Medicaid fraud law

MIAMI - A state Medicaid fraud law banning kickbacks for driving patients to dentists is unconstitutional because Congress protects transportation by medical employees from prosecution, a state appeals court ruled.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal agreed with Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David Miller that charges should be dismissed against 10 people charged with racketeering, fraud and conspiracy for payments of $25 to $30 per child to drivers.

The state argued that the payments were illegal kickbacks for patient referrals. There were no allegations that dental services were not provided.

Judge Mario Goderich wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel that the state law "stands as an obstacle" to congressional objectives in the health care program for the nation's poor.

TALLAHASSEE - A man who gained national notoriety as a teenager 27 years ago when his lawyer unsuccessfully argued that "television intoxication" led the boy to murder an elderly neighbor will be get out of prison a year early.

The Florida Parole Commission voted 2-1 on Wednesday to allow Ronny Zamora to be released June 7 of this year instead of 2005 as earlier scheduled.

Zamora was 15 in 1977 when he robbed and murdered 83-year-old Elinor Haggart at her Miami Beach home. His sensational trial was one of the first to be televised. His attorney, Ellis Rubin, used a "TV defense," arguing that watching violent programs like Kojak had prompted Zamora to kill.

In an appeal, Zamora turned against his lawyer and claimed the TV intoxication argument made a mockery of his defense. A federal court upheld the conviction.

Zamora was denied parole in 2001, but the Parole Commission reconsidered his case last year after his attorneys said his behavior in the last 10 years has been excellent and he had received "glowing" reports from psychologists.

Upon his release, he will be deported to his native Costa Rica, where he will work for the country's minister of justice.

MIAMI - A former campaign staffer has sued U.S. Senate candidate Larry Klayman, claiming the Miami attorney slandered him by accusing him of stealing campaign documents and badmouthing him to political colleagues.

Klayman denies the allegations by political consultant Paul Rolf Jensen and says he's being targeted by former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, a rival in the Florida Republican primary.

"He's working with Sen. Smith. He's advising Sen. Smith," Klayman said. "It's a political stunt and it's political dirty tricks."

Smith spokesman Peter Schweitzer acknowledged that Smith and Jensen are friends but said the consultant is not on the campaign staff.

"Sen. Smith doesn't play political dirty tricks," Schweitzer said. Klayman hired Jensen as a full-time employee in August but Jensen quit in October over a pay dispute. In his lawsuit, Jensen alleges that Klayman told other campaign consultants Jensen "had committed a crime" and needed to "hire a criminal lawyer."