A 46-year-old Denver man was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for his part in stealing more than $700,000 from the Colorado Medicaid system.
William Humphries pleaded guilty March 28 to two counts of theft over $15,000.
Humphries, a former manager at D&D Medical of Aurora, which supplied wheelchairs, parts and power-wheelchair repairs, overbilled Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars for services, according to the Colorado attorney general’s office.
The company billed Medicaid for a large number of services that never occurred and D&D employees printed false work orders and documented false repair times to file bogus billings, according to court documents.
Indictments have also been issued against D&D owner Daniel Crispin Arnold, 50, as well as employees Carl Nunn, 31, and Karen Bittner, 37. Nunn pleaded guilty April 10 to theft over $500, a Class 4 felony, receiving a two-year deferred sentence. Bittner is scheduled to be arraigned June 5, and Arnold will stand trial beginning Oct. 1.
The investigation continues and further charges may be filed, the attorney general’s office said.
Additional local news briefs:
ARAPAHOE COUNTY
Woman wounded by shot through door
Sheriff’s deputies were investigating the shooting of a woman Wednesday morning at an apartment building in the 7500 block of East Arkansas Avenue.
Deputies arrived about 10:30 a.m. and were told that unknown people shot through the front door of an apartment, striking a woman in the chest.
The victim was transported in good condition to a hospital.
The shooters were described as two men between the ages of 20 and 30, driving a green Lincoln Continental.
FORT CARSON
Iraq war claims two in 759th MP Battalion
Two more Fort Carson soldiers have been killed while serving in Iraq.
Pfc. Zachary R. Gullett, 20, of Hillsboro, Ohio, died May 1 in Baghdad as a result of a noncombat-related injury. His death is under investigation.
Gullet was assigned to the 984th Military Police Company, 759th Military Police Battalion.
On Friday, the Pentagon announced the death of Pfc. Roy L. Jones III, 21, of Houston. He died May 10 in Diwaniyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered from small- arms fire.
He was also assigned to the 984th Military Police Company, 759th Military Police Battalion at Fort Carson.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Teachers, district reach tentative pact
Teachers in Jefferson County Public Schools will receive a 4 percent cost-of-living increase in pay, effective Sept. 1, as well as pay increases based on years of service and education, under a tentative contract agreement announced Wednesday.
The contract, which must be approved by the Jefferson County school board and ratified by Jefferson County Education Association members, includes medical benefits.
The two groups have agreed to a system of evaluating probationary teachers that will begin in August 2008.
In addition, both sides agreed to using paraprofessionals in middle and high schools to alleviate teacher workloads, and to develop an instructional leader program in every school.
GRAND JUNCTION
Walker Field Airport gets a name change
A Colorado airport on the Western Slope will now be known by a new name.
The board of the Walker Field Airport Authority voted 6-0 on Tuesday to change the name of the facility to Grand Junction Regional Airport.
The airport had been named in 1942 for Walter Walker, publisher of The Daily Sentinel newspaper from 1911 to 1956.
Supporters of the proposal said changing the name was smart, especially at a time when the facility is undergoing a $20 million renovation – $700,000 of which was to pay for new sign age.
“When they (travelers) fly here, they are not flying to Walker Field. They are flying to Grand Junction,” board member Roger Little said shortly before the vote.
Not everyone, including Grand Junction resident Ken Sublett, was convinced.
“We don’t have much to hang out hats on historically,” he said. “Let’s keep something in this town that has a little bit of history.”
The name change took effect immediately.
BOULDER
Scientists explain Saturn moon’s plumes
Plumes of ice and water seen erupting from cracks on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus come from frictional heating similar to rubbing hands together to warm them, researchers report today.
Enceladus’ spin and oval- shaped orbit around Saturn create tidal forces on the moon’s surfaces, according to a team of scientists, including two at the Southwest Research Institute and the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The tidal push-and-pull creates enough friction to warm the moon’s icy crust, occasionally cracking it open to release water and ice, they report in the current issue of the journal Nature.
GOLDEN
Mines engineer a part of NASA sinkhole test
A Colorado engineer and his colleagues are poised to lower an orange robotic explorer into a Mexican sinkhole, thought to be one of the deepest in the world.
Colorado School of Mines professor John Spear is part of a NASA-funded expedition to northeastern Mexico, the site of the water-filled Cenote Zacatón, which is perhaps 1,000 feet deep.
The NASA expedition is to help scientists prepare for exploring lakes under Antarctic ice, and eventually the liquid ocean under the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
