Huh Huh...Tuscaloosa...Bobo...Huh Huh...

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http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/inde...&thispage=1

Jury clears Bobo on all 5 charges

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE

News staff writer

TUSCALOOSA - A federal jury ended an eight-year legal battle Monday for Dr. Phillip Bobo, acquitting the Tuscaloosa physician of fraud and other charges stemming from an effort in 1999 to obtain Medicaid maternity contracts.

The jury returned the verdicts of not guilty on all five charges just over two hours into their eighth day of deliberations. Bobo, 62, was charged with health-care fraud, wire fraud, witness tampering, perjury and lying to investigators.

Bobo, sitting with his arms resting on the defense table and his hands clasped, closed his eyes and bowed his head, nodding as each verdict was read. Afterward, Bobo embraced dozens of friends and family who waited with him since the jury began deliberations Aug. 9.

"We're extremely pleased," said Bill Clark, Bobo's lead defense lawyer. "Dr. Phillip Bobo has finally gotten what he deserves, free of these charges."

The case against Bobo started with a 1999 criminal investigation prompted by a competitor contacting authorities with claims that Bobo was trying to rig Medicaid bids. Bobo was accused of using his influence with former Gov. Don Siegelman to change the contract process and to access state money at the Alabama Fire College to offer bribes to his competitor.

A federal jury convicted Bobo in 2001 of conspiracy and health-care fraud. But that verdict was overturned on appeal and a new indictment returned in the case in 2004. Bobo's trial on that indictment was delayed while his lawyers appealed the new charges.

Bobo testified that he never offered bribes but instead was trying to make a business deal with other health-care providers after a state bid process for the Medicaid contract ended in 1999. He and his defense lawyers also argued that prosecutors asked vague questions and misinterpreted his answers, leading to their charges against him of perjury and lying to investigators.

"We are disappointed in the verdict, but thank the jury for its service," U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said in a prepared statement after the verdict was announced. "The years of delay in retrying this case due to numerous appeals and the death of a key witness were felt as evidence was presented."

After Bobo was charged again in 2004, Clark filed appeals challenging the new indictment on the grounds that Bobo couldn't be charged again for essentially the same crimes because an earlier appellate decision noted problems with the evidence in the 2001 case.

But Clark lost the appeal after justices ruled earlier opinions had not decided the issue of evidence in the case. He also lost an effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court review the issue.

Key witness dies:

Bobo's trial began last month, but didn't include a key witness. Dr. Marc Armstrong, a physician who helped make some recordings of telephone calls with Bobo, died after the first trial.

Those tapes, and others played for jurors, were used by prosecutors as evidence to argue that Bobo offered Armstrong and another man an $800,000 bribe if they would help persuade Bobo's competitor to drop efforts to win the Medicaid contracts to serve poor, pregnant women in west Alabama.

Prosecutors claimed Bobo's proposal would have cost $1 million more than his competitor.

Bobo testified during the seven-day trial that he was offering Armstrong and others a business proposition to join forces to provide the services. He testified he would help them with $550,000 in contracts through the Alabama Fire College. Bobo had served at the time as the Fire College's medical director.

Now that the legal battle is over, Bobo hopes to return to his medical practice in Tuscaloosa, Clark said. His friends attending the trial said Bobo's popularity in the community helped him through the difficult legal process.

"The community was standing behind this man," said Gabriel Fernandez, a retired surgeon who said he has known Bobo for decades.

Bobo's 2001 trial offered a glimpse into an early investigation of Siegelman and his aides. When initially contacted in 1999, investigators were told that Bobo was coordinating his bribe efforts with Siegelman's administration.

After Bobo's first trial, a top aide to Siegelman agreed to plead guilty in an unrelated public corruption case and offered prosecutors testimony that he delivered confidential bid information about the Medicaid contracts to Bobo. Siegelman and Paul Hamrick, who served as Siegelman's chief of staff, were indicted along with Bobo in 2004, but their charges were dropped after a federal judge prohibited prosecutors from offering evidence about a conspiracy they alleged.

Siegelman later was convicted in an unrelated corruption trial in Montgomery. Hamrick, who also was charged in that case, was acquitted.

Bobo's case also sent investigators to the Fire College, where in 2004 they were told about other issues at the firefighter training school that triggered an investigation into misuse of state money.

That investigation has resulted in several guilty pleas, three convictions and an ongoing criminal investigation that has expanded into Alabama's two-year college system.