CHICAGO ― The United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana has found that a pediatrician who was charged with having allegedly engaged in fraudulent billing practices suffers from a progressive dementia, rendering him incompetent to stand trial. The doctor was represented by Daniel M. Purdom, a Partner in Hinshaw’s Lisle office. Mr. Purdom, who previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, heads Hinshaw’s White Collar Criminal Practice Group and its Health Care Fraud and Abuse Specialty Group.
The pediatrician, Dr. Jihad Kasim, was hospitalized in July 2003 after suffering a heart attack and entering a coma. Kasim ultimately exited the coma and was later released from the hospital. On April 16, 2007, Kasim was charged in an indictment with Medicaid fraud-related crimes. Subsequently cleared by his treating physician to return to work, Kasim resumed his pediatrician responsibilities in November 2007.
Contending that Kasim was not competent to assist in his own defense, Mr. Purdom moved for a hearing to determine his client’s competency to stand trial. A three-week long evidentiary hearing before Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich followed. Ultimately, the court agreed with Mr. Purdom.
The court noted that after Kasim survived his heart attack in 2003, his treating physician noted what was later classified as an early indication of dementia. The court was also persuaded by testimony from medical specialists that Kasim: had difficulty communicating clearly with others, a tendency to convey inaccurate information, and an inability to concentrate; suffered from paranoia; exercised poor judgment; and did not understand the charges at hand. The Magistrate also noted testimony by Kasim’s co-workers that their colleague was once a competent pediatrician but had, after his heart attack, become “withdrawn, somnolent, indecisive, and disinterested.”
There was, in addition, objective medical evidence that Kasim suffered from a medical disability caused by a functional impairment in his front temporal lobes. That, the court determined, corresponded to testifying medical specialists’ respective diagnoses that Kasim suffered from vascular dementia. Reiterating the point, the court stated that “the repeated diagnoses of dementia by four of the physicians called to testify, which included input from at least two other medical specialists, were highly convincing.”
The government contended that evidence Kasim had the mental capacity to commit the crimes charged, to perform his duties as a pediatrician, and to pass his medical board recertification exam suggested that he was competent to stand trial. The court disagreed, noting the difference between frontal lobe dementia’s effects on judgment and comprehension and its lack of effect on preserved memory. The government has filed objections to the Magistrate's opinion.
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