Reno court date set for Desai plea on fraud charge
Dr. Dipak Desai is to plead guilty in Reno April 2 to a health care fraud conspiracy stemming from the 2007 hepatitis C outbreak.
In a brief order Tuesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks said the hearing will be broadcast to a Las Vegas federal courtroom through a video hookup.
Federal prosecutors had strongly objected to moving Desai’s plea and sentencing out of Las Vegas, but the Reno-based Hicks said in an order last week that “good medical cause exists” to do so.
Defense lawyer Richard Wright has said the move would let Desai stay in state custody in Carson City, where he is being treated for “neurological and cardiac” conditions. Desai, 65, who has suffered three strokes since 2007, is serving a life sentence under medical watch at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center.
A U.S. Bureau of Prisons psychological evaluation of Desai last year found him competent to stand trial but suffering from memory and cognitive impairments, Hicks wrote last week. State medical authorities in 2013 said he was exaggerating the effects of his strokes.
A jury convicted Desai in July 2013 of 27 criminal counts related to the hepatitis C outbreak, including second-degree murder in the death of patient Rodolfo Meana, 77. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years.
Desai was indicted in 2011 on one federal count of conspiracy and 25 counts of health care fraud related to inflating the length of medical procedures and over-billing insurance companies.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter @JGermanRJ
