Case against podiatrist is laid out
Murder covered up fraud, jury is told
By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 20, 2005
A Chicago podiatrist murdered a former patient just days before she was to testify against him in a fraud probe because the doctor believed she would be the lone witness against him, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
But a lawyer for Dr. Ronald Mikos tried to debunk that central government theory, pointing out that the massive investigation had uncovered that nearly 100 patients were victimized as part of the Medicare fraud.
"Killing one patient could not possibly end that investigation," Cynthia Giacchetti, one of Mikos' lawyers, told a federal jury in opening statements.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Cramer charged that Mikos shot Joyce Brannon three times in the back and then put the gun against the flesh of her neck and fired three more times, emptying his revolver. Brannon, 54, a disabled caretaker, was killed in the basement apartment of the North Side church where she lived and worked.
If Mikos is convicted of Brannon's murder, prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty from the same jury.
In addition to the murder, the 25-count indictment charges that Mikos, 56, defrauded Medicare of more than $1.2 million by falsely claiming to have performed more than 6,000 surgeries. He is also accused of obstructing justice by recruiting patients to lie to investigators about the fraud.
In opening remarks to jurors, Cramer said Mikos knew that Brannon was among the patients of interest to investigators after he voluntarily met with a prosecutor and agent in the fall of 2001 to try to convince them he had performed all 6,000 surgeries.
By early 2002, Brannon and three others had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury. One prospective witness, Charles Lobosco, was taking kickbacks from Mikos as part of the fraud scheme and Lobosco's daughter, another would-be witness, was mentally disabled and not a threat to Mikos either, Cramer said.
The other potential witness, an elderly woman, had led Mikos to believe she wouldn't testify against him either, Cramer said.
"Only Joyce Brannon stood in his way," the prosecutor told jurors. "He had to do something."
Three days before the murder, Mikos retrieved several firearms of his from Skokie police and called Brannon to plead with her not to testify. But Brannon later told her sister and a friend of the call and said she had refused to lie for Mikos.
After Mikos' arrest, the FBI recovered all the firearms in a storage facility rented by Mikos--except for a .22 caliber revolver that authorities believe was used to kill Brannon. An exhaustive search didn't turn up the gun, Cramer said.
In her opening remarks, Giacchetti cautioned jurors not to be swept up by the emotion of the case. She recounted how Cramer had dramatically described certain murder details in his opening but pointed out that Mikos wasn't seen anywhere near Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church, 5942 N. Magnolia Ave.
And no physical evidence connects him to the murder scene either, Giacchetti said.
Giacchetti scoffed at the government contention that Brannon was key to the prosecution case, saying, "There were 90 other patients."
Source Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...ck=1&cset=true
Podiatrist murdered a former patient just days before she was to testify
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