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Franklin Chronicle


Volume 9, Number


A LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER


January 7 20, 2000


Grand Jury Indicts County Residents On
9 Counts Of Conspiracy To Defraud The

United States Government

 Publisher's Note: The following story is extensively based on the
 indictment from the Pensacola Grand Jury returned on Decem-
 ber 14, 1999, and the press release from U. S. Attorney P. Michael
 Patterson, Northern District of Florida. The reader is advised that
 an indictment is a charging document only and all defendants
 are innocent until proven guilty. Allegations are accusations; these
 charges are NOT evidence.
On December 15, 1999, U. S. Attorney P. Michael Patterson, North-
ern District of Florida, announced that a Federal Grand Jury returned
a nine count indictment against Brenda M. Molsbee, Maxie G. Carroll
and Thomas V. Novak for conspiracy to defraud the United States
Government by making false cost reports to the Dept. of Health and
Human Services and Aetna Life Insurance Company.
Molsbee, age 49, is from Carrabelle, Maxie G. Carroll, age 63, lives in
Eastpoint, and Thomas V. Novak, age 66, lives in Tallahassee. The
indictment charges that the trio, through Wellsprings Home Health
Care, Inc., a home health care agency that operated out of Carrabelle
with several branch offices in northern Florida, filed fraudulent re-
ports to obtain reimbursements from Medicare for improper charges.
These alleged improper charges included fraudulent account expenses,
travel reimbursement expenses, rental expenses, and maintenance
expenses.


 -<File Photo) Nita Molsbee
Wellsprings Home Health Care (Wellsprings) was headquartered in
Carrabelle, Florida, and at the height of the operation maintained
offices in Franklin, Wakulla, Taylor, Gadsden, Bay, Madison and Leon
counties. Wellsprings filed for voluntary bankruptcy in late 1995 due
to other matters.


 (File Photo) Wellsprings former headquarters, Carrabelle.
 Brenda M. Molsbee was. the president and co-owner of Wellsprings
 Home Health Care, Inc. Thomas V. Novak assisted in the preparation
 of the Wellsprings cost reports as the accountant and bookkeeper for
 Wellsprings and prepared tax returns for Wellsprings and other cor-
 porations operated by Molsbee and Maxie G. Carroll, vice-president
 and co-owner of Wellsprings.
 Additionally, Carroll and Molsbee were charged with three counts
 each of filing false individual tax returns for 1993, 1994 and 1995 by
 under-reporting income. Molsbee was indicted for filing a false cor-
 porate income tax return in the name of Island View Enterprises for
 1994. She was also charged in count nine of the indictment with
 committing perjury in a bankruptcy proceeding in Tallahassee, Florida,
 after Wellsprings filed for bankruptcy.
 Medicare is a program administered under the auspices of the U. S.
 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,-the purpose of
 which is to provide health care for entitled beneficiaries, primarily
 the elderly and disabled. Medicare and HHS contracted with an in-
 termediary, Aetna Life Insurance Company (Aetna) to administer the
 Medicare program as it related to business conducted with home
 health care agencies in Florida.
 The defendants Molsbee and Carroll purchased Wellsprings on or
 about January 1, 1993. Before this purchase, the defendants Molsbee
 and Carroll owned and operated Panhandle Nursing, Inc., a home
 health care agency with headquarters in Carrabelle, Florida. On or
 about March 25, 1994, Wellsprings and Panhandle merged into a
 single business entity using the Wellsprings name. From about Janu-
 ary 1993 through March 25, 1994, defendants Molsbee and Carroll
 operated Wellsprings and Panhandle from the same office location.
 The purpose of Wellsprings was to provide in-home nursing care for
 eligible persons with illnesses or disabilities that required them to be
 home-bound. Medicare reimbursed Wellsprings for costs incurred for
 direct patient care and for reasonable overhead expenses incurred
 for direct patient care of home-bound patients. Wellsprings submit-
 ted to Medicare, through the intermediary Aetna, annual and interim
 cost reports for home and branch offices that identified costs that
S Wellsprings claimed as reimbursable under the Medicare program.
 The expenses from the cost reports submitted by Wellsprings to Aetna
 Continued on Page 6


 Inside

 This Issue

 12 Pages

 Franklin Briefs.......... 2
 Editorial & Commentary
 .................................. 3
 Second Circuit Court. 4
 Personalities in the News
 .................. 5, 6, 10, 11
 COPS Grant .............. 7
 FCAN ....................... 8
 Lanark ...................... 9
 Bookshop................ 12



 Ramirez Medical
 Closing January
 21, 2000
 Ramirez Medical will close its
 doors on January 21, 2000. Dr.
 Ramirez thanks the residents of
 Franklin County for their support
 and trust these past three years.
 Arrangements for medical record
 maintenance and referral of pa-
 tients is underway and will be
 announced no later than Friday,
 January 7, 2000 and will be car-
 ried on Oyster Radio, Oyster
 Country and WXGJ Country. Let-
 ters are also being sent to each
patient individually. Dr. Ramirez
is relocating to his hometown of
Kissimmee, Florida, January 28,
2000.

New Year's Party
Was One Topic At
Apalachicola City

Meeting

By Rene Topping
Mayor Alan Pierce began the regu-
lar business of the January 4
meeting of the Apalachicola City
Commission, by opening two bids
that had been made on three new
pieces of equipment for the City
of Apalachicola .
Flint Equipment had a total bid
of $176,750, with $83,000 on a
Front Loader, and two back hoes,
one at $57,000 and the second at
$60,250. They offered a 5 year
 Continued on Page 2


Will Kendrick

Schedules Fund-

Raiser For

District 10 Race

Florida House of Representatives
candidate Will S. Kendrick an-
nounced today that he has sched-
uled his first Campaign Fund-
raiser. The event will be a down-
home, old fashioned Ice Cream
Social. The event is scheduled at
Chillas Hall on January 15, 2000,
3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
It has been estimated by the
Florida Democratic Party that a
normal House of Representative
race would need approximately
$200,000. Kendrick stated, "I
plan to work real hard over the
coming months to raise campaign
funds." He further stated that he
is "hopeful that the people in Dis-
trict 10 will support these func-
tions early on. It is important that
people realize that in a race of this
nature you can not wait until you
see the finish line, you've got to
raise as many contributions as
possible, before you ever leave the
state. Those $10 and $25 contri-
butions are as important to me
as the larger ones. I'll need them
all to get across the line in
November."


Kendrick announced his inten-
tions to seek the House Seat in
December and filed his intent as
required by Florida Statutes. The
original filing is with the Secre-
tary of State, Division of Elections,
with a copy on file with Franklin
County Supervisor of Elections
Doris Shiver Gibbs. Representa-
tive Janegale Boyd, who currently
holds this seat, has filed her in-
tent to seek the Senate District 3
Seat.
Over the past weeks, Kendrick
has been busy planning his cam-
paign and meeting with people in
the local area. Kendrick said,

 Continued on Page 8


Tri-States Agree To Extend

Deadline For Dividing River Waters

On 29 December 1999, representatives of Alabama, Georgia and
Florida agreed to extend the deadline for five months to arrive at an
equitable division of the surface waters of the
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin.
The Compact, involving the three states and the Federal Government,
was to dissolve on December 31, 1999, if agreement was not reached
on how to allocate water resources among the three states.
Up to the date of the extension, December 29th, the signatory states
had not been able to agree upon an equitable apportionment for-
mula. The extension is for five months, to May 1, 2000. The extension
was signed in the Commonwealth Building, Tallahassee, at 10:15
a.m.
Mr. Lindsay Thomas is one of the Federal Commissioners involved in
the Compact of the three states, His letter to Governors of Alabama,
Florida and Georgia of December 6th, urged an extension of the dead-
line. He wrote, in part,
 Long deliberations from the U.S. Congress and the State
 Legislatures brought about the unusual opportunity for
 the states to make determinations about the future of
 regional water resources in the form of the
 Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River (ACT), and the
 Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River (ACF) Basin
 Compacts. As a former member of Congress, it is my sin-
 cere feeling that this rare chance for self-determination
 will most likely never come our way again. In the South-
 east region of the United States, our economy, our cul-
 Continued on Page 12


(File Photo) Gene Brown


New Wrinkles In Litigatinn

Involving Water Cumipany And

St. George Island Bridge
In July 1999, the Water Management Services (WMS, .operator of the
St. George Island Utility, and island residents Peter V.- Amato and
Pamela Amato filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the
Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) from tearing down the
Bryant Pattan Bridge after the new bridge is completed, sometime in
2003.
Moreover, WMS argued that moving the existing water line from
Eastpoint to the WMS facilities on St. George ought to be paid for by
the DOT. WMS also argues that they have an easement and the
planned destruction of the old bridge (Bryant Pattan) is equivalent to
an unlawful taking of the WMS property without just compensation.
Now, the attorneys for the DOT have filed six motions for a partial
summary judgment of this case to be heard in argument in mid-
February in Apalachicola.
DOT, in motion #1, asserts that WMS holds a license, not an ease-
ment, and the license expressly stipulated that the permit was for
permissive use only, and the placing of water lines upon the Patton
bridge shall not operate to create or vest any property right in WMS.
The present utility permit held by WMS will still permit a relocation
of the waterline to the new bridge and will NOT violate the franchise
held by WMS.
In a second motion seeking a partial summary judgment, DOT ar-
gues against WMS's attempts to use the courts to obtain a utility
easement over public-right-of-way and claims that these attempts
violate the legislature's delegation of this responsibility to the FDOT.
In a third motion for partial summary judgment; the DOT attorneys
cite the license language which states that whenever necessary for
purposes of construction, repair or maintenance, any appurtenances
authorized in the license, such as poles, wires, pipes, cables or other
facilities shall be removed from the highway or relocated as required
by the State Highway Engineer, and at the expense of the permitted
unless reimbursement is authorized. The permit held by WMS also
states that the placing of facilities on public property inder the li-
cense shall NOT operate to create or vest any property right in the
holder of the license. Moreover, the DOT attorneys argue that WMS is
not entitled to a statutory way of necessity for water utility service on
'and over Bryant Patton bridge as access is not completely cut off and
that WMS does not quality for this change in legal status because
WMS already has access across the existing bridge and would have
the same access on the new bridge In a fourth motion, DOT argues
that WMS cannot show that there is no practicable route of egress or
ingress available for a water line.
Motion #5 argues that WMS has no existing property right to form
the basis of an allegation that tearing down the Patton bridge would
amount to an unlawful taking without compensation. The final mo-
tion, #6, deals with the WMS request for Declaratory Judgment and
Mandatory Injunction. Specifically, the Florida Constitution provides
for a distinct separation of powers, argues DOT. The Court would be
requiring the existing Patton bridge to remain intact indefinitely, and
by and such action would be substituting its judgment for the judg-
ment of FDOT, a separate administrative agency, and therefore in-
volving itself in judgmental, planning-level decisions.
As a part of the discovery process in this litigation, Mr. Gene D. Brown
was videotaped in a sworn deposition on Thursday, December 16,
1999, beginning about 1:40 p.m.
Excerpts of the Brown testimony are as follows:
The Issues Defined By The Water Management Services

 Arthur L. Berger, Assistant General Counsel, DOT (Depart-
 ment of Transportation) Question (Q): Did Leisure Proper-
 ties, Ltd., have to submit the plans referred to in paragraph 14
 of the utility permit to any other governmental agency?
 Mr. Brown Answer (A): We probably had to submit them to the
 Department of Environmental Control or DEP or whatever it
 was called back then, as well as DOT.
 Q: Would that have been part of getting the certificate issued by
 the Public Service Commission at that time?
 A: I think before we got a certificate issued by the PSC, we had
 to show that we had the permit or the right to transport the
 water across the bridge.
 Q: Is Water Management Services, Inc.. legally bound by the
 obligations set forth within the utility permit marked as Exhibit
 1 to this deposition?

 Continued on Page 7