Grand Jury Indicts 10 in Insurance Scam

Nearly six months after a massive law enforcement raid on 26 lawyers’ and chiropractors’ offices, 10 people were indicted Wednesday by the Ventura County grand jury on charges that they “bought” patients and bilked the insurance industry.

The grand jury handed up indictments in the case known as Operation What’s Up Doc against four chiropractors, two attorneys, two office managers, a psychologist and a chiropractic patient.

The indictment says that some of the defendants were paid for referring clients to other defendants and that some were accused of filing bogus insurance claims.

The grand jury indicted chiropractors John Mark Clark, 48, who works in Simi Valley; David William Clemens, 48, whose office is in Oxnard; and Tom Ray Fontenot, 44, who practices in Camarillo. Fontenot is an Oxnard reserve police officer.

The indictment also includes charges against attorneys Steven Harold Gross, 51, whose office is in Westlake Village and Martin Kenneth Harary, 50, who works in Oxnard. Charges were lodged against Thousand Oaks chiropractor Joseph Hemphill, 48, and Julie Hemphill, 45, his wife and office manager.

The indictment also names Deborah Lynn Martin, 31, Clark’s office manager; Gary Richard Rick, 49, a psychologist in Ventura, and chiropractic patient Philip Gordon, 38, of Moorpark. The defendants, all free on either bond or a promise to reappear in court, are to be arraigned July 24 in Ventura County Superior Court.

While the maximum penalty for insurance fraud is five years in prison, it is unclear how stiff the penalties would be for anyone convicted in this case, said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. John Geb.

“These are a new type of case for the courts, and we have no prior track record with it,” he said. “In the more serious cases . . . we will be asking for prison [sentences].”

Geb said the grand jury did not indict three people who were arrested in raids on their offices on Dec. 1: Steven Spunt, 34, who is Fontenot’s office partner; Agoura Hills attorney Donald Wylie, 46, and attorney Rand E. Pinsky, 45, who is Gross’ law partner.

“There just wasn’t sufficient evidence, at least at this point,” to indict them, Geb said. The investigation will continue, he said.