Owners of one of the largest towing businesses in Southern California arrested in nearly 6 million dollar fraud scheme

After months of inactivity, the docket is coming to life again in the $22 million federal fraud case against the Erie-based Hertel & Brown physical therapy practice.

A judge has scheduled a long-awaited evidentiary hearing in the case, which started with an indictment in November 2021 against Hertel & Brown Physical & Aquatic Therapy as a business, its two owners and 18 other employees.

U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter has scheduled the evidentiary hearing for Aug. 29 at the federal courthouse in Erie. It is over a request of two defendants, both physical therapists, that Baxter suppress statements the FBI said the two gave agents.

The hearing will occur a year after it was originally supposed to happen, on Aug. 23, 2023.

Defense scheduling conflicts led Baxter to postpone the August 2023 hearing. She kept it on hold as she resolved other requests from the same two defendants, including a request that she toss the indictment. Baxter denied the dismissal request in early October 2023, and closed another issue with an order filed about three weeks later.

With those issues taken care of, the defense and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have been waiting for Baxter to reschedule the suppression hearing. The office on Feb. 6 filed a motion that asked Baxter to set a hearing date.

Baxter responded by setting the new date of Aug. 29 in a one-paragraph order filed on Thursday. That order was docketed a day after Baxter issued an order that scheduled a video status conference with all the lawyers in the case for June 4.

Both orders signal that the pace is quickening in the Hertel & Brown case — the largest-ever white-collar criminal prosecution in Erie.

Defendants accused of overbilling Medicare, Medicaid, insurance
The case concerns medical billing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is alleging Hertel & Brown; its founders and owners, Aaron W. Hertel, 45, and Michael R. Brown, 47; and the 18 other employees conspired to overcharge Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers $22 million over 14 years, starting shortly after Hertel & Brown launched in January 2007 and ending in October 2021.

The November 2021 indictment — and a superseding indictment, returned in May 2022 — charge all the defendants with one count each of the felonies of health care fraud and criminal conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud.

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty and are free on unsecured bonds of $10,000. Hertel & Brown remains in operation, though it is down to one office, in a plaza on West 12th Street, just east of Pittsburgh Avenue, down from five offices overall.

Ruling on suppression likely to affect outcome
Two of the 21 defendants requested the suppression hearing: Jacqueline Renee Exley and Julie Ann Johnson. But the hearing’s outcome will be critical to all the defendants.

How Baxter rules on the evidence will likely influence the kinds of pretrial motions the other defendants file — and whether any guilty pleas will occur before a trial. No trial date has been set.

In court in March 2022 — four months after the indictment — Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold, the lead federal prosecutor in Erie, said an unspecified number of defendants were cooperating and were ready to testify at trial. His statement signaled plea deals were in the works.

Any plea talks are not expected to intensify until after Baxter rules on whether to suppress evidence for Exley and Johnson. Many of the other defendants are still deciding whether will file their own suppression motions, according to court records.

Exley and Johnson and their lawyers want Baxter to toss statements the FBI said the two gave to agents during a search of Hertel & Brown’s offices in February 2021. The lawyers, all from Pittsburgh, are Jennifer Bouriat for Exley and Efram Grail and Julia Gitelman for Johnson.

Exley and Johnson are claiming the FBI agents violated their Miranda rights, about warnings that interview subjects must receive when they are in custody.

Whether Exley and Johnson were ever in custody is the major issue in their suppression fight. Exley and Johnson claim they were. Trabold is arguing they were not.

Did 2 physical therapists make ‘incriminating statements’?
The statements — as the U.S. Attorney’s Office characterizes them — bolster the fraud allegations. As Baxter said in her October ruling in which she refused to dismiss the indictment: “The Government has maintained that both Exley and Johnson made incriminating statements…, an allegation which Exley and Johnson strenuously deny.”

The statements were not taped. They are based on the notes of the FBI agents.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a court filing that Exley and Johnson told the agents that they and other employees at Hertel & Brown regularly overbilled for services at the direction of the business’ owners.

Also according to the filing, Exley and Johnson reported to the FBI that Hertel and Brown told the employees how to bill for services in an improper manner. Johnson, according to the filing, told the FBI “that at Hertel & Brown that is the way it has always been done and we turned a blind eye.”

A New Haven man who worked as an individual day support provider for people with disabilities was arrested and charged with billing Medicaid for personal care services he did not provide, according to the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney.

Gordon Skinner, 48, of New Haven, was arrested Sept. 9 by Medicaid Fraud Control Unit inspectors and charged with one count of first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community and one count of health insurance fraud, Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin noted in a news release.

The state Department of Developmental Services Self-Directed Program is a Medicaid-funded program that provides people with disabilities with funds to hire support staff to assist them with daily self-care activities which enables them to reside in their homes and remain in the community, it was explained. The program is a partially reimbursed service of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The government funds awarded for this program are distributed by the state Department of Social Services through a fiscal intermediary.

An investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found that between May 2024 and December 2024, Skinner, who was employed as a private hire individual day support provider, submitted time sheets and was paid for services he did not provide to a particular client, according to Griffin.

“The parents of the client became aware of Skinner fraudulently billing for services that were not provided to their child and reported it to the DDS,” he said.

By comparing payroll data, it was determined that Skinner was paid for over 200 hours for services never provided, Griffin said, adding the investigation revealed Skinner billed for 208 hours not rendered, totaling $5,584.70. The Chief State’s Attorney said that the “money profited by him in the amount of $5,584.70,” constitutes the crime of Larceny in the First Degree by Defrauding a Public Community, and the submissions of the claims to DSS “contained false, incomplete, deceptive or misleading information,” which constitutes the crime of Health Insurance Fraud.

The larceny charge, a Class B felony, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, Griffin said.

Skinner is scheduled to appear in New Haven Superior Court on Thursday. Griffin noted that the “charges are merely accusations and he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”

A Toledo woman is among 16 Medicaid providers who the Ohio attorney general’s office says were indicted on theft and fraud charges for allegedly stealing $1.7 million from the healthcare program.
Jameshia Harkness, 33, “allegedly billed for 49 dates of service for which she did not provide care, representing a $8,391 loss to Medicaid,” according to a press release from AG Dave Yost.

The other indictments include 10 people from northeast Ohio, two people from central Ohio, two people from southern Ohio and one person from Chicago.

Two of the people indicted were barred from providing services to Medicaid recipients due to felony convictions for murder and involuntary manslaughter, according to Yost. Another allegedly billed for a patient’s services while on a cruise, while others are accused of billing for home health services despite their patients being in the hospital.

The indictments were filed in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus by the AG office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

“Medicaid fraud may be a financial crime, but it comes at a human cost,” Yost said. “It preys on the vulnerable who depend on the program and betrays the trust of the taxpayers who fund it.”

You can read the full list of indictments below:

Ralph Wells, 47, of Ashtabula, drew investigators’ attention after a tip alleged he was billing for services not rendered. Agents with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found the allegation to be unfounded but learned that Wells had been convicted of murder in West Virginia in 1998 and, consequently, was ineligible to be a Medicaid provider. Despite that, Wells had his employers bill Medicaid $230,936 for services.

Lineil Massey, 67, of Akron, also was found to be acting illegally as a Medicaid home health care provider after investigators uncovered convictions of involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault. Despite being barred from the program, Massey billed $4,633 for services.

Neesha Haynes, 39, of Eastlake, was indicted for aggravated theft, a second-degree felony, and Medicaid fraud for improper billing when clients were hospitalized from January 2022 to June 2025. Investigators identified a $819,400 loss to Medicaid. Three people who worked with Haynes also were indicted: Tanesha Timberlake, 37, of East Cleveland, Tiara Jeffries, 40, of Euclid, and Emily Jeffries, of Eastlake.

Leon Shephard, 36, of Cleveland, was indicted on one count of Medicaid fraud. Between January 2024 and July 2024, he allegedly overbilled for services to seven people, a loss of $488,444 to Medicaid.

Kyle Cherry, 30, of Chicago, was charged after investigators determined that $129,912 was improperly paid to him for overbilling between August 2024 and July 2025.

Tanisha Brooks, 40, of Canton, was indicted for Medicaid fraud and theft after an investigation calculated a $3,615 loss to Medicaid. The home health aide is suspected of billing for services not rendered and providing care while under the influence of drugs. A pair of anonymous tips prompted the investigation.

Jameshia Harkness, 33, of Toledo, allegedly billed for 49 dates of service for which she did not provide care, representing a $8,391 loss to Medicaid.

Danielle Morgan, 41, of West Union, is accused of submitting bills for services not rendered. She allegedly continued the fraudulent billing even after she was told by a Medicaid recipient to stop coming. In total, she billed for $5,832.

Sean Sisler, 52, of Lorain, was indicted for Medicaid fraud after investigators determined that he participated in a kickback scheme and received $21,228 he was not due.

Patricia Gattshall, 41, of Marion, submitted fraudulent timesheets indicating she provided home health services when in reality she was on a cruise from Los Angeles to Hawaii. When confronted with travel records and social media posts proving that she was on the cruise, she initially claimed that the patient accompanied her on the vacation. In total, $1,518 was fraudulently billed to Medicaid.

Roiesha Pettiford, 41, of Columbus, Gina Dillon-Gardner, 40, of New Carlisle, and Burgandy Jones, 44, of Cleveland, were indicted in separate cases involving a loss to Medicaid of $7,425. They claimed they provided home health services to Medicaid recipients, but investigators later determined that the recipients were in the hospital on the dates that the services were said to be provided.