Greco v. State

515 A.2d 220, 307 Md. 470, 1986 Md. LEXIS 299
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedOctober 3, 1986
Docket142, September Term, 1985
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 515 A.2d 220 (Greco v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greco v. State, 515 A.2d 220, 307 Md. 470, 1986 Md. LEXIS 299 (Md. 1986).

Opinion

COUCH, Judge.

We granted certiorari in this case to determine questions of venue and the application of the statute of limitations in a Medicaid fraud criminal prosecution against Dr. William R. Greco.

I

The underlying facts giving rise to the criminal charges brought in this case are not in dispute. Suffice it to say that Dr. Greco was a stockholder in a corporation which operated Magnolia Gardens Nursing Home (Magnolia), a residential care facility located in Prince George’s County. He was also Magnolia’s administrator. Magnolia was a participant in the State’s medical assistance program (Medicaid). In Maryland, Medicaid is administered by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) located in Baltimore City.

Under the Medicaid program, the State reimburses health care providers, including nursing homes such as Magnolia, for a portion of their costs based on the number of eligible patients whom the providers serve. To receive reimbursement a participant in the program must submit a reimbursement application containing two different annual cost reports—an Interim Rate Calculation (IRC) and a Statement *472 of Reimbursable Costs (SRC). An IRC is a statement of projected reimbursable cost, while the SRC is a statement of actual cost incurred. The reimbursement application and annual cost reports were, at the pertinent time involved here, submitted to Hospital Cost Analysis Services (HCAS), DHMH’s contract auditor. HCAS was located in Baltimore County.

HCAS, using the statements and representations submitted by Magnolia, calculated Magnolia’s per diem payment rate per patient and notified DHMH thereof. DHMH, using this rate, then preliminarily determined the amount of money payable as reimbursement to Magnolia. Magnolia was duly notified by DHMH as to the amount of reimbursement it was entitled to. Magnolia then had the opportunity to update the “pre-invoice” amount of reimbursement by adding to its submitted statements and representations the number of new patient admissions and subtracting the number of patients who had left the facility. This updated information was sent by Magnolia to DHMH in Baltimore City. At this point DHMH was able to finally determine the amount of reimbursement Magnolia was entitled to and thus to request the Comptroller of the Treasury in Annapolis to have a check issued for that amount to Magnolia. When such a check is issued from Annapolis to a participant, a “voucher” is included demonstrating how the amount of the check was computed; this voucher is prepared by DHMH in Baltimore City.

Dr. Greco was indicted by the Grand Jury for Baltimore City on six counts of Medicaid fraud, 1 three counts of false pretenses, 2 and one count of theft. 3 The charges of Medicaid fraud stemmed from the inclusion of certain non-reimbursable expenses by Dr. Greco within the statement *473 of Magnolia’s annual costs in Medicaid reimbursement applications submitted in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980.

Dr. Greco contended in the trial court that the entire indictment should be dismissed since venue was improper and the statute of limitations had expired as to the Medicaid fraud counts; the trial court rejected this contention. Following a non-jury trial, he was acquitted of the false pretenses counts as well as the theft count, but convicted of the Medicaid fraud counts.

The Court of Special Appeals rejected Dr. Greco’s venue and statute of limitations arguments and affirmed. Greco v. State, 65 Md.App. 56, 499 A.2d 209 (1985). We concur with the judgment of the intermediate appellate court and will likewise affirm.

II

(A)

Dr. Greco first contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for judgment of acquittal because the State had failed to prove the charged offenses were committed in Baltimore City.

The thrust of appellant’s argument, simply put, is that “each count of the indictment alleged that the offenses were committed in [Baltimore] City;” therefore there had to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Dr. Greco, in Baltimore City, knowingly and wilfully made or caused to be made false statements or representations of a material fact in any application for any benefits or payments under a State plan established by Title XIX of the Social Security Act of 1935; or made such statement or representation for use in determining rights to those benefits or payments. 4 *474 Relying on the absence of any evidence showing that any statement or representation was made, or caused to be made, in Baltimore City, Dr. Greco now argues that there was a significant variation between the allegata in the indictment and the probata as adduced at trial, such that acquittal was required. He also contends that the State failed to show that Baltimore City was the proper venue for the trial.

We find no merit to appellant’s first argument that since the State failed to prove he made or caused to be made any false statement or representation in Baltimore City, acquittal was required. We observe that Article 20 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights provides for the right of an accused to be tried where the facts arise. The common law likewise afforded the accused the right to be tried where the crime was committed. In Lodowski v. State, 302 Md. 691, 707, 490 A.2d 1228 (1985), vacated on other grounds, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 1452, 89 L.Ed.2d 711 (1986), we reiterated this general rule and shall continue to adhere to it today. In applying this rule, we bear in mind what our predecessors said long ago in State v. Kriss, 191 Md. 568, 575, 62 A.2d 568 (1948) (quoting with approval the United States Supreme Court in Strassheim v. Daily, 221 U.S. 280, 285, 31 S.Ct. 558, 560, 55 L.Ed. 735 (1911)):

“Acts done outside a jurisdiction, but intended to produce and producing detrimental effects within it, justify a state in punishing the cause of the harm as if he had been present at the effect, if the state should succeed in getting him within its power.”

Since our decision in Kriss, we have been presented with very few cases requiring its application. In Stewart v. State, 275 Md. 258, 340 A.2d 290 (1975), we held that venue was proper in a jurisdiction where an escapee was commit *475 ted to custody, even though at the time of the escape he was in another jurisdiction. In reaching this conclusion, we noted:

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Bluebook (online)
515 A.2d 220, 307 Md. 470, 1986 Md. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greco-v-state-md-1986.