By Rupert Howell
A federal appeals court in New Orleans has ruled against former Tri-Lakes Administrator Ray Shoemaker and businessman Lee Garner in a bribery and kickbacks case involving Tri-Lakes Medical Center.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday on counts against Shoemaker and  Garner who were tried for federal crimes arising from a bribe and kickback scheme involving Tri-Lakes Medical Center.

A federal jury returned guilty verdicts on most counts, but U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers in August 2012 ruled the government erred by relying on alleged actions of hospital board member David Chandler to support allegations against Garner and Shoemaker.

Biggers granted new trials on several counts, saying alleged actions of Chandler were used to support allegations against Garner and Shoemaker. That ruling was appealed by U.S. Attorneys.
Shoemaker is a former administrator at Tri-Lakes. Garner was associated with Guardian Angel Nursing/On-Call Staffing. Chandler was serving as Panola County Administrator. Panola County and the City of Batesville formerly co-owned the facility. Both Dr. Robert Corkern and Chandler cut plea deals with the government for their cooperation.

The government said that Garner and Shoemaker conspired to increase Garner’s nurse staffing business at the hospital and Garner paid Shoemaker for his help.

Garner was accused of offering to pay Shoemaker $25,000 in exchange for Shoemaker’s influence over the ordering of nursing services for Garner’s company. Court records show Chandler paid Shoemaker $12,000 in the conspiracy.

Prosecutors had said Garner paid Chandler a kickback and bribe in the amount of $5 per hour for every hour of nursing services Garner’s nursing company billed and collected at Tri-Lakes.
As part of that scheme, prosecutors said Garner paid Chandler $268,000 between May 2005 and July 2007 and that Chandler acted as middleman between Shoemaker and Garner.

Biggers said prosecutors had to show that the person receiving the alleged bribe — in this case Chandler — had authority to act for the institution (Tri-Lakes).

The government appealed Biggers’ acquittals and the new trials for Garner and Shoemaker. Shoemaker appealed Biggers’ denial of acquittal or a new trial on the remaining counts, of which he alone was convicted.

The 5th Circuit panel vacated Biggers’ acquittals and new trials, and upheld Shoemaker’s other convictions, and sent the case back to Biggers for sentencing.

The 5th Circuit panel said the evidence in the case clearly showed Chandler had decision-making authority over how the hospital spent its money and that was sufficient to convict Shoemaker and Garner.

“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, we conclude that evidence of the agreement between Garner, Shoemaker, and Chandler to bribe Shoemaker was sufficient to support the convictions,” the panel said.

Garner, Shoemaker and Corkern were indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2011 on allegations they carried out a conspiracy to wrongly reward Garner and enrich Shoemaker through the kickback-bribery scheme.

Corkern was sentenced to two years’ house confinement and three years’ post-release supervision for his role in a scheme. Chandler was sentenced to 14 months in prison, a sentence he began serving April 22, 2013. He was also fined $40,000, ordered to pay $33,564 in restitution and serve 200 hours of community service to Panola County.

In Nov., 2013 lawyers for Corkern, who pleaded guilty to one count of bribing Chandler, filed a motion to set aside the judgement against him or to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea. Judge Biggers signed an order in January terminating the judgement.