Pretrial homecoming for eye doctor Melgen on hold
Ophthalmologist facing Medicare fraud charge described as flight risk.
WEST PALM BEACH — For a short time this week, it appeared Dr. Salomon Melgen would be able to leave his daughter’s Palm Beach Gardens condo and move back into his sprawling house on the Intracoastal Waterway to await trial on charges that he defrauded Medicare out of as much as $105 million.
But a day after U.S. Magistrate James Hopkins approved the ophthalmologist’s request to return to his $3.2 million house in Captains Key near Juno Beach, federal prosecutors on Tuesday balked.
Having long argued that Melgen, who was born in the Domin- ic an Republic, is a flight risk, prosecutors asked Hopkins to put his decision on hold until it is reviewed by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra. Hopkins agreed.
That means Melgen, 62, who also faces corruption charges in New Jersey along with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, has to stay put until Marra rules.
Hopkins, who held nearly a dozen hearings in 2015 before allowing Melgen to be released from the Palm Beach County jail on an $18 million bond package, granted Melgen’s request to go home on Monday. Although he had required Melgen to move into his daughter’s condo to cut off his easy access to the waterway, he said he no longer had concerns about allowing the physician to live in his own house.
“An assessment ... of the defendant’s abilit y to flee via water from his home vs. via highway access to a point of immediate departure leads this court to conclude that there is no appreciable faster exit afforded via water,” Hopkins wrote, after being told Melgen had sold both his boat and jet since his arrest.
Hopk i n s , who i n J u l y s a i d a recent U. S. Supreme Court decision could help Melgen and Menendez beat the corruption charges, also agreed Melgen could leave his home from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. without an escort but must continue to wear an ankle monitor.