State of Iowa
v.
Chung Chris Lo
Appellee
State of Iowa
Appellant
Chung Chris Lo
Attorney for the Appellee
Martha E. Trout, Assistant Attorney General
Attorney for the Appellant
R. Ben Stone
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, Richard B. Clogg, Judge. AFFIRMED. Heard by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and May, JJ. Opinion by Doyle, J. (14 pages)
Chung Chris Lo appeals his conviction for first-degree fraudulent practice. OPINION HOLDS: I. Lo fails to show his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to challenge the fraudulent practice statute as unconstitutionally vague and therefore void. The term “participating” as used in the statute is of common usage and understandable. And the statute is not vague as applied to Lo because the State was not required to show that Lo was a provider “participating” in the Medicaid program, only that he aided and abetted a provider participating in the program. II. Sufficient evidence supports Lo’s conviction because it shows he failed to disclose that he was permanently excluded from participation in the Medicaid program while aiding and abetting his wife and nephew, who owned a company that was a Medicaid provider. III. Lo cannot show the trial court’s omission of a portion of his requested instruction on “mistake of law” prejudiced him. IV. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Lo’s motion for mistrial because testimony by a State witness that Lo and his wife were involved in a scheme to defraud Medicaid did not render the jury unable to reach an impartial verdict.
