Physician charged with Medicaid fraud

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 12, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- A St. Petersburg physician was charged Thursday with defrauding the state's Medicaid program of more than $100,000.

Dr. The T. Nguyen, 57, faces one count of Medicaid provider fraud and one count of grand theft. The Florida Attorney General's office said Nguyen submitted 4,400 phony insurance claims and billed the state's Medicaid program $107,000 for care he never provided.

The claims were submitted between January 1997 and September 1999. The Attorney General's Office began the investigation after getting a tip that Nguyen was wrongfully billing Medicaid patients, who are only supposed to pay $2 per visit.

That allegation didn't prove true, but investigators did notice that some patients seemed to see him a lot, said Patrick Niemann, deputy chief for the Attorney General's Tampa bureau.

"We started asking the patients about their treatments and their services and discovered he was billing for services he never performed," Niemann said.

"He'd see them once, twice, maybe three or four times a year, but he was billing for services that approached dozens of office visits a year."

Nguyen, a general practitioner who lives in Largo, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his office, 3500 Fifth Ave. N in St. Petersburg.

If convicted, Nguyen faces up to 35 years in prison and fines up to $15,000. He could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

Killing was over stolen clothing, police say

CLEARWATER -- Police think Mark A. Taylor died over the theft of another man's clothing.

Police announced Thursday that the owner of the clothing was arrested in North Florida and accused of beating Taylor to death in Clearwater on April 29.

Thomas James Rudy, 33, was held in Suwannee County Jail in Live Oak on a charge of first-degree murder.

Clearwater police Sgt. Doug Griffith said detectives investigating Taylor's death traced Rudy to Suwannee County, where deputies arrested him about noon Wednesday as he drove north on Interstate 75, north of Interstate 10. He is accused of forcing his way into Taylor's apartment at 10071/2 Osceola Ave. about 3 a.m. Saturday. Armed with a board, he hit Taylor several times in the upper body, police say. Taylor, 39, died from the blows.

Taylor's 35-year-old girlfriend, Veronica Weaver, was hit on the head during the attack, suffering minor injuries. Weaver could not be reached Thursday.

Sometime last week, Rudy left clothing in a suitcase on the porch of a friend in Taylor's neighborhood. Taylor took some of the clothing, Griffith said.

The attack on Taylor, who worked for a landscape maintenance company, was in retaliation for the theft, police say.

Motorcyclist killed when he loses control

ST. PETERSBURG -- A 27-year-old St. Petersburg man was killed Wednesday night after he was thrown from his motorcycle at 38th Avenue S and Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) Street.

Tiwan L. Rogers, who lived at 3103 48th Ave. S near Maximo Elementary School, died shortly after the 9:40 p.m. accident.

Police say Rogers was speeding south on Dr. M.L. King when, for an unknown reason, he locked up the motorcycle's rear brake and lost control. The 1997 Kawasaki hit the curb on the intersection's southwest corner and went down on its right side.

Rogers was thrown from the cycle. He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:25 p.m.

Police initially suspected that this was a hit-and-run accident, but further investigation showed that the motorcycle was the only vehicle involved. Toxicology tests will be done to determine whether Rogers had been drinking.

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