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Concussion fund pays out $485M

PHILADELPHIA — The NFL concussion fund has paid out nearly $500 million in its first two years, but some players’ lawyers say there aren’t enough doctors in the approved network to evaluate dementia claims.

They went to court Tuesday to oppose a rule to require retired players to be tested by doctors within 150 miles (241 kilometers) of home to prevent “doctor shopping” and suspected fraud.

Fund administrator Orran Brown said ex-players from around the country had flocked to four doctors now dismissed from the program who had “high-volume” traffic and some suspect findings.

“We didn’t notice it until the claims were coming in,” Brown said. “Forty-six million dollars went out the door on these claims before we could flag it.”

Retired players can seek awards of as much as $3 million for moderate dementia and $1.5 million for mild dementia, although most men would get far less based on their age and years in the league. The settlement resolves thousands of lawsuits that alleged the NFL long hid what it knew about the risk of concussions.

Senior U.S. District Judge Anita Brody, who has overseen the case since 2011, suggested the travel limit is needed to prevent abuse.

“A few were brought to my attention where we had a lawyer from Pennsylvania and a player from Florida going to a doctor in Texas. And that was a red flag,” Brody said.

Philadelphia lawyer Gene Locks, who represents some 1,100 retired players, urged Brody not to adopt the rule, saying his clients agreed to the settlement believing they could choose their own doctors.

“They had bad experiences with the NFL benefit program, both during their playing time and after their playing time, when they felt they were used and abused, and were not going to the doctors they wanted to,” Locks argued.

He said there are at least 30 different subspecialties of neurology, only a few of them well-suited to evaluate his clients.

Brown acknowledged he’s still trying to recruit doctors in some parts of the country for the program. He suggested Brody adopt the 150-mile (241-kilometer) rule but allow him to grant exceptions. The fund, expected to pay out more than $1 billion over 65 years, has paid out $485 million so far, and another $174 million in claims have been approved, Brown said.

The NFL has appealed about 30% of the approved claims, but closer to 15% if the four doctors removed from the program aren’t counted, according to players lawyer David Buchanan.

If someone wants to travel “to see a world-renowned physician, or a world-renowned neuropsychologist, they should have that right,” Buchanan said.

Lawyers for the NFL monitored the hearing but did not take part in Tuesday’s arguments.

The settlement, forged in 2013 and later amended, offers more than 20,000 retired players baseline testing and compensation of up to $5 million for the most serious illnesses linked to football concussions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and deaths involving chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

Kraft lawyers accused

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two of Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s high-profile defense attorneys lied during his misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution case and falsely alleged a police officer admitted to fabricating a traffic violation to stop another massage parlor customer, prosecutors asserted Tuesday.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office filed a motion asking Judge Leonard Hanser to hold attorneys Alex Spiro and William Burck in contempt and throw out their questioning of Jupiter police officer Scott Kimbark. While questioning Kimbark during a court hearing last week, Spiro accused him of telling other officers he would make up a reason to stop the customer who left the Orchids of Asia Day Spa directly before Kraft in January, using an obscenity to describe what he would do.

Prosecutors say Kimbark never did that.

“There are no rationalizations, justifications, or excuses for Spiro’s and Burck’s knowing presentation of false and misleading accusations directly affecting the credibility” of Kimbark, prosecutors Judith Arco, Greg Kridos and Craig Williams wrote.

Burck told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he and Spiro “will not be intimidated.” He said they will provide evidence backing up their claims. Burck represented former White House Counsel Don McGahn during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Spiro also represents Jay-Z, Mick Jagger and other celebrities in various matters.

“They have made a series of false accusations against us,” Burck said. “This is all an obvious and desperate attempt to deflect attention away from the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Jupiter Police Department and the state lawyers.”

At a hearing that concluded last week, Kraft’s attorneys asked the judge to throw out video recordings allegedly showing the 77-year-old owner twice paying for sex in January at Orchids of Asia. Kraft, who is worth $6 billion, is one of 25 men charged of paying between about $50 and $100 for sex. He has pleaded not guilty but issued a public statement apologizing for his actions.

During the hearing and in court documents, Jupiter police said that after receiving a tip from a neighboring county that Orchids of Asia might be a prostitution front, detectives placed it under surveillance in November and convinced a judge in January to issue a warrant letting them install hidden cameras in the spa. Kraft’s attorneys accused them of lying to obtain the warrant, which they also said was a violation of the customers’ privacy rights.

According to testimony, if detectives monitoring the cameras saw a customer pay for sex, the suspect was tailed by Jupiter officers as he left the parking lot until he committed a traffic violation. He was then pulled over to obtain his identification so he could later be charged with solicitation. The men were not told immediately that they had been seen at Orchids of Asia. Police said they didn’t want to tip off the owner that the spa was being watched.

Kimbark pulled over Kraft’s chauffer after one of his visits. During questioning last week, Spiro asked Kimbark about his recorded conversation with other officers about pulling over the previous customer. Spiro four times accused Kimbark of acknowledging he didn’t have probable cause to stop the man, but would “make some … up,” using a common obscenity.

Kimbark denied saying that, as did prosecutors Tuesday. Prosecutors said to avoid telling the man that his traffic violation had occurred in the spa’s parking lot, Kimbark was recorded telling another officer that if the man asked about its location he would “come up with something.”

Prosecutors said the wording of Spiro’s question “was designed to mislead (Hanser) as to the lawfulness of the traffic stop.”

Burck and Spiro filed a rebuttal late Tuesday saying Spiro “had a good faith basis” to question the officer as he did, based on what he was told by the other man’s attorney. They said prosecutors didn’t give them Kimbark’s video before the hearing as requested.

Prosecutors also accused Spiro of trying to intimidate Kimbark during a lunch break, allegedly telling the officer he had video of Kimbark saying “stupid” things, using the earlier obscenity.

Burck in his phone interview laughed at the accusation, saying prosecutors were present during Spiro’s conversation with Kimbark.

“If they thought it was such a terrible thing, it is interesting that they decided to raise it a week later and not right after it happened in front of the judge,” he said.

Kraft is scheduled to be in court later this month for another hearing.

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