Tom Dominski
Appearances
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So I recall receiving a telephone call from the prosecutor, Eric Gose. We were scheduled to attend the sentencing not that long after May 31st of 2020 regarding Julie Wheeler, and he had told me that it was reported that she fell into the New River Gorge National River from the Grandview Overlook.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
I have been to that park many times, and I could see somebody falling there if they weren't careful. There are no railings, and it is a very high point in West Virginia in the mountains. But I suspected immediately that this is something that she was potentially doing to avoid sentencing.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
She was a VA beneficiary. She had spina bifida. She received in-home health care. Her home health care services were not skilled services. They were basic meeting needs of the beneficiary, such as helping her shower, brushing her hair, preparing meals for her, cleaning her home, things of that nature.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
She was billing the VA for eight hours a day, seven days a week, which would be 56 hours of care per week.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
It was actually her sister. So Julie Wheeler was claiming to VA that she provided home health care services for her sister. However, some witnesses claimed that maybe she was providing 10 to 15 hours of care per week.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
The beneficiary's husband acknowledged to us that through the course of a year approximately, he would estimate that Julie Wheeler only provided a total of eight hours of care over a year.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And it was right around $470,000 total that she had received from VA.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So the red flag came from our Office of Community Care, which is run out of Denver, Colorado, through the Veterans Health Administration. Caregivers would fax that office basically statements monthly showing what hours they were there and what kind of care they provided. And those statements were used to reimburse the home health care people.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So the paperwork that was being submitted was being faxed from West Virginia to Denver. I determined that that fax number was registered to a business by the name of Lincare in Beckley, West Virginia, and I found out that Julie Wheeler was employed there. I was able to subpoena and review her employment records, which showed that she worked at Lincare Monday through Friday from 8 to 4.30.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
At the same time, she was billing the VA for care, again, seven days a week. But importantly, she was billing and acting as if she was taking care of Kelly Monday through Friday as well from 8 to 4.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
Correct. I learned through her employer that the VA was somewhat backed up in their payments to reimburse Julie for the care that she had provided for a few months. So when Julie received her initial VA payment, it was about $130,000.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And according to the folks at Lindcare, the day that it hit her bank account, based on, you know, the review of records that I conducted, she never returned to work. She never called. And she had worked there for about seven years. She just stopped showing up. So it kind of showed, you know, when she got her money, she never went back and continued the fraud scheme.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
In July of 2018, I took several agents to try to see what kind of care was being provided. And when we went to the home where Kelly, the VA beneficiary, was living, we found that it appeared she was living in a garden shed. It had some electrical wires running to it. It had a garden hose running through the window. So we were really concerned about her.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And the group of agents that went with me, we ended up going to Julie Wheeler's house next, where we found them all together. And we conducted simultaneous interviews by separating everyone. And myself and another agent spoke to Julie Wheeler.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So one of the things we noticed right away, she had at least $100,000, if not $150,000 in new vehicles in the driveway. There was a brand new Ford Mustang convertible, a Chevy Tahoe, a Jeep Wrangler, and a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle. So when we interviewed Julie, that was one of the questions we asked her. You had a pretty modest income from Lynn Care.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
How can you afford all these vehicles? Initially, she stuck with her story that she did take care of her sister. She said she made an error with the billing because she went there after work for eight hours a day and not before work and said, you know, I'm wrong. I shouldn't have written eight to four because I was at work.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And eventually she broke down a little bit and said, well, you know, it's a lot to take care of her. She requires a lot of care. I also have a home and I have a husband and two teenage children that I have to care for as well. So she acknowledged some of the fraud initially, but it wasn't until the second time we interviewed her, which would have been the next year, I believe, in 2019 in August.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
She had a new job because the VA was no longer paying her. We talked to her, and she acknowledged that she was only caring for Kelly a few hours a week.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
We go to the United States Attorney's Office, which was in Charleston, West Virginia, for this particular case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Gose was assigned to review our report and our evidence and potentially prosecute Julie Wheeler.