Fraud Charges Dismissed Then Refiled Against Encino Attorney

ENCINO -- Los Angeles County prosecutors refiled charges Thursday, shortly after asking a judge to dismiss charges against a dozen people charged in what was once called one of the largest insurance fraud scams in California's history.

One of the people charged is Tatiana Torres Arnold, 46, of Encino, who prosecutors say was Dr. Munih Uwaydah's personal attorney and held various positions in his companies. Uwaydah is accused of medical fraud.

"I think it's outrageous. I think the DA's office should be ashamed of itself," Mark Kassabian, attorney for one of the defendants, said outside court.

Kassabian said the prosecution had "basically asked for a do-over" in the fraud case, in which the 12 were indicted in 2015 and had been awaiting trial.

He noted that the defense had made the unusual step of objecting to the prosecution's request for the charges to be dismissed because it required the case to start over again.

Nelson is scheduled to be arraigned April 26 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, along with 11 other defendants.

The 2015 indictment remains in effect for Dr. Munih Uwaydah and one of his employees, Wendee Luke, who are fugitives, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The prosecution asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy to dismiss the indictments "in the interest of justice" before refiling the cases, according to Greg Risling of the District Attorney's Office.

Also charged were:

• Paul Turley, 44, of Granada Hills, a chiropractor and Uwaydah's business partner;
• Maria Turley, 40, of Granada Hills, Uwaydah's director of surgery;
• Kelly Soo Park, 51, of Thousand Oaks, Uwaydah's office manager;
• Marisa Schermbeck Nelson, 40, of Redondo Beach, Uwaydah's personal assistant;
• Peter Nelson, 45, of Redondo Beach, Uwaydah's physician assistant;
• Ronnie Case, 40, of Camarillo, a billing manager;
• Jeffrey Stevens, 65, of Playa del Rey, who was a business associate of Uwaydah's;
• Leticia Alvarez Lemus, 40, of Corona, an office manager;
• Tony Folgar, 59, of Sylmar, a paralegal for a law firm;
• Yolanda Groscost, 50, of Fountain Valley, the owner of a marketing firm;
• Terry Luke, 72, of Brea, who held various positions for Uwaydah's companies. He is Wendy Luke's father.

Prosecutors allege that attorneys and marketers were paid to refer patients, and that nearly two-dozen patients were allegedly duped into having surgical procedures in the belief that they would be done by Uwaydah when the procedures were allegedly performed by Peter Nelson, who never attended medical school.

Prosecutors also contend that Uwaydah was not present in the operating room for all surgeries and that 21 patients have lasting physical scars, and that insurance companies were billed tens of millions of dollars and that medical reports were falsified.

-- City News Service contributed to this report, photo via Shutterstock