Chicago federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the first time in eight years, against an Evanston podiatrist in connection with the 2002 death of a key witness in a health-care fraud case against him, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Cramer said.
The trial for Ronald Mikos, which began Tuesday, will focus on the murder charge this week, said Cramer, who is prosecuting Mikos.
Mikos, 56, was arrested in February 2002 and charged with 19 counts of mail and health-care fraud and six counts of obstruction of justice, including the murder of former patient Joyce Brannon, The Daily reported in 2002.
The murder charge falls within the charges of obstruction of justice, said a spokesman from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
Mikos’ attorney Cynthia Giacchetti did not return repeated phone calls from The Daily.
Brannon was shot six times in the head and neck at close range at a Chicago church where she lived and worked. The shooting occurred on Jan. 27, 2002, four days before she was scheduled to testify against Mikos before a federal grand jury.
Brannon’s sister testified last Thursday that three days before her sister was murdered, Brannon told her she refused Mikos’ requests to lie for him or to not show up to the hearing.
Giacchetti argued to the jury Tuesday there is no DNA evidence linking Mikos to the murder, but investigators found in Mikos’ car a partially empty box of .22-caliber Long Rifle ammunition, a shell casing from a .22-caliber bullet and a handwritten note of the church’s schedule from the day of Brannon’s murder, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Prosecutors said Mikos killed Brannon because he felt threatened by her possibly incriminating testimony.
The jury would also decide whether Mikos gets the death penalty if he is convicted.
The federal investigation, which started in 2000, centered on allegations that Mikos illegally charged Medicare more than $1.25 million for surgical procedures when he was actually performing toenail clippings and other non-surgical procedures, a criminal complaint said.
Seven of his former patients testified Wednesday that Mikos’ Medicare claims are invalid, Cramer said.
According to the 2002 complaint, Brannon said that aside from toenail clippings and an operation on her large toe, she had not received the 87 surgical procedures Mikos said he performed on her.
Brannon and six other patients were subpoenaed in January 2002. The other six refused to testify and Brannon was found dead four days before her scheduled court appearance.
Mikos is being tried at the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Reach Helena Oh at [email protected].
