A Florida doctor and a medical consultant pleaded guilty this week to federal charges arising from a scheme to pressure hundreds of women to get their pelvic mesh implants removed. The effort was intended to increase the value of personal injury claims against the manufacturers of the medical devices.
The guilty pleas — by Dr. Christopher Walker on Friday and Wesley Blake Barber on Tuesday — bring to a close a criminal case brought two years ago by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. The two men pleaded guilty to violations of the federal Travel Act, a law that prosecutors have used to pursue charges of bribery in the health care profession.
Mr. Barber, 51, could face at least four years in federal prison when he is sentenced in December by Judge Raymond J Dearie of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Dr. Walker, also 51, who pleaded guilty to two counts, could be sentenced to at least eight years when he appears before the judge in January. Lawyers for both men are expected to ask for lesser sentences under the federal guidelines.
The scheme was one of the more unsavory sides of the mass tort case against a half-dozen manufacturers of pelvic mesh including Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson. The case has led to more than $8 billion in settlements for roughly 100,000 women in the United States. Dozens of personal injury firms also collected billions in fees in the process.
Prosecutors charged the two men in 2019 with participating in a network...
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