Judge consolidates medical fraud cases

A federal judge has consolidated the fraud case against a Las Vegas doctor with the fraud case against a personal injury lawyer and medical consultant.

In court paperwork filed Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ordered Mark Kabins to face trial alongside Noel Gage and Howard Awand, whose cases were combined two days earlier.

Federal prosecutors sought the case consolidations, saying all three were involved in the same conspiracy to inflate medical costs, protect doctors from malpractice lawsuits and share kickbacks from legal settlements.

U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush will preside over the consolidated case.

Gage and Awand were indicted together in May 2007, and Quackenbush later separated their cases over an objection from the government.

Gage's trial in March 2008 ended in a mistrial when jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

Quackenbush later dismissed the charges against both Gage and Awand after prosecutors refused to grant limited immunity to Kabins, described at the time as a target of the fraud investigation.

Kabins was indicted in March on conspiracy and fraud charges, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated the charges against Gage and Awand.

Quackenbush agreed to rejoin the Gage and Awand cases after prosecutors said they would dismiss 14 of the counts against Awand. The judge previously had acquitted Gage of most of those counts.

The dismissal of the additional counts against Awand means the trial will focus solely on the case of Melodie Simon, who became paralyzed after Kabins and his partner, John Thalgott, operated on her in 2000. Simon later hired Gage to help her pursue malpractice claims.

No trial date has been set.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.