10/11/2008

Associated Press

Federal agents used a hidden video camera to record a North Idaho man's visit to a doctor last year as part of an effort to prove he was faking paraplegia to receive $1.5 million in disability benefits, the man's lawyer says.

The videotaping occurred at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Spokane on Sept. 26, 2007, when James M. Sebero underwent a physical, and it was revealed at a U.S. District Court hearing on Friday, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.

"You go to your doctor, he tells you to drop your pants, and there's the government — recording and watching the whole thing," Sebero's lawyer, Jim Parkins, said after the hearing.

Sebero, 58, of Laclede, Idaho, is charged in federal court in Spokane with making false statements to obtain VA benefits, and in federal court in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, with related wire fraud charges. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

He came to the attention of authorities when they investigated him for running a small-aircraft repair business at Felts Field in Spokane without certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. As part of that inquiry, they said, they determined he had been fraudulently receiving disability benefits since 1976.

Sebero was summoned to the VA Medical Center on Sept. 26, 2007, for a "compensation and pension" physical examination because he hadn't had one since 1978, when he was given a medical discharge from the Air Force, Parkins said.

At that visit, Sebero made three false statements, according to prosecutors: that he couldn't walk, that he hadn't had a job since he left the Air Force and that he had not obtained a pilot's license.

In reality, they say, Sebero can walk, and they have more surveillance video to prove it. Sebero ran an aircraft maintenance facility and worked as a marine deputy with the Bonner County sheriff's office in Idaho, and had a pilot's license, prosecutors say.

Sebero's lawyer told The Associated Press on Saturday that he didn't know the doctor's visit was recorded until the U.S. attorney's office provided the recording to him on Thursday. Nor did he have time to determine which federal agents made the recording, whether a search warrant was involved or whether the doctor was aware of it.

At Friday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Ellis did not offer details or explanation about the video, Sebero said.

Parkins is expected to ask the judge to bar federal prosecutors from using the video on the grounds that federal agents violated Sebero's privacy and doctor-patient confidentiality between Sebero and Dr. Reed Rasmussen of the VA.

Trial is set for next January. Ellis said he expects to subpoena Sebero's two ex-wives and his current wife. They already have been questioned about their sex lives with Sebero in an attempt by investigators to debunk his claim of being paraplegic, the judge was told.

"They've extensively dug into his sexual abilities," Parkins told the court, suggesting he may also attempt to block use of that testimony from Sebero's spouses on grounds of marital privilege.

"I don't think I've ever addressed that issue in my 28 years on the bench, but it's never too late to learn," U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush said with a smile.