Doctor's ALS fraud case goes to jurors
By TOM NAMAKO Staff Writer, (856) 794-5115
Published: Thursday, December 7, 2006


CAMDEN — A jury will now decide whether a Galloway Township physician is guilty of swindling thousands of dollars from patients with Lou Gehrig's disease or simply mismanaged their funds while searching for a cure.
Closing arguments were made Wednesday in the trial of recognized Lyme disease expert Charlene DeMarco and her aide, Elizabeth Lerner. Both are facing an 11-count indictment charging conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

Attorneys for both sides said Lerner, after being arrested and charged, said to DeMarco, “They can't get us for mail fraud, I sent the money back,” referring to a small payment reimbursement to one of their patients.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geni Cowles said that remark was a confession showing there was intent to defraud the patients. Defense attorneys said that Lerner, shocked at the arrest, was trying to say that some money was returned in good faith.

During the closing arguments, Cowles recounted what she said was DeMarco's plan to convince four patients to pay for an ALS treatment. ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease — slowly paralyzes the body.




The proposed treatment included injecting stem cells into a patient's brain, a procedure that DeMarco did not have the skill or equipment to pull off and that was not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, Cowles said.
Cowles made a detailed presentation with charts and graphs to show how DeMarco preyed on four vulnerable rural Louisiana families whose loved ones had ALS.

One of those patients, Barbara Parker, held a massive fundraiser in her rural Louisiana hometown to help raise money for her husband's treatment, which DeMarco said cost more than $30,000, Cowles said.

“They provided false hope to get funds,” Cowles said. “These families scrimped and saved, went to their communities for money, and the defendants took that money and spent it on themselves while the families hoped in vain for a cure.”

Cowles said that DeMarco and Lerner used more than $75,000 on cash ATM withdraws, a weekend at a local winery, and on a propane barbecue grill from Lowe's.

DeMarco came to know the ALS patients through word-of-mouth referrals.

On Wednesday, DeMarco and Lerner sat nearly motionless in the courtroom, watching the arguments as intently as the 20 people in the U.S. District Court gallery. During breaks, DeMarco would lean over the bar and talk to supportive friends and patients, who sat nodding their heads or holding their mouths as Cowles laid out what she said was the physician's elaborate scheme.

Defense attorney Jack McMahon's closing argument initially startled many of the jurors. Unlike Cowles, he stalked the courtroom floor and would come within inches of the government's table to challenge the allegations that his locally beloved — yet disorganized — client would do anything to harm her patients.

McMahon referred to DeMarco's first ALS patient, Matt Sciacca — who died before the procedure could begin and is not part of the indictment — to show that money was irrelevant to his client.

“She treated him and fought the federal government and FDA for him free of charge for six months without getting paid,” McMahon said. “How do you reconcile that with the idea she's out for money?”

While talking to the Parkers about the treatment, McMahon said DeMarco continued to seek FDA approval for her plan. He said she made all her patients aware that the stem-cell injections were not federally approved, had never been tried on humans before and could be dangerous.

“This is not the sharpest business woman and she's not an organized person,” McMahon said. “She didn't care about money.”

The decision to buy a grill with the patient's money was foolish, McMahon said. But Lerner's attorney, Paul Duca, said that was just “sloppy bookkeeping on both defendants' part.”

Before the closing arguments, the defense called 10 character witnesses to the stand for brief, 5-minute testimonies. They praised DeMarco as an excellent Lyme disease doctor while they were her patients.

The witnesses included Jeanne Moos, a correspondent for CNN; a Pennsylvania cabinet maker; and a former dean at Salem Community College.

“This is not about medicine, it's about money,” Cowles said later, adding, “The defendant may have been a good Lyme doctor, but that's irrelevant for the four families who were defrauded.”

To e-mail Tom Namako at The Press:

TNamako@pressofac.com
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...-6857231c.html