News briefs from San Diego County

By: Associated Press | Thursday, March 11, 2004 11:03 PM PST ∞

NATIONAL CITY -- An internal police investigation found that an officer acted properly in a case involving two Mexican shoppers who were deported when a relative was detained for allegedly shoplifting at a J.C. Penney store, National City's police chief said.

Chief Penu Pauu said, however, that eight of nine J.C. Penney Co. employees lied to investigators and were coached by corporate representatives.

Pauu summarized the report's findings but did not make the document public because it involved an internal personnel matter.

J.C. Penney officials say their employees did not point out Antonio Flores Noyola to police as a suspected shoplifter in the Nov. 14 incident. The police department maintains they did.

Officer Steve Shepard asked Flores and three relatives with him to present identification. Flores, a legal immigrant, presented his California driver's license, and his wife presented her identification.

Flores' aunt and cousin did not have identification on them. Shepard called the U.S. Border Patrol. The aunt and cousin were deported.

No charges were filed against Flores. A human rights group, The American Friends Service Committee, has demanded that J.C. Penney apologize for what it called a racial-profiling case.

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego City Council approved a plan to spend an additional $200,000 on consultants to help it fight a lawsuit filed by the San Diego Chargers over the team's lease at Qualcomm stadium.

The council voted Monday to increase contracts with Manhattan Beach sports facility consultant Dan Barrett and New York attorney Robert Kheel by $75,000 each, setting a ceiling of $325,000 per contract.

It will also increase its contract with Denver attorney Paul Jacobs by $50,000, to $275,000.

The city has spent $1.58 million of the $2.3 million it allocated to handle the lawsuit the Chargers filed a year ago.

SAN DIEGO -- A psychologist pleaded guilty to federal charges of defrauding Medicare of more than $30,000 by over-billing and filing false claims.

Dr. Joseph Yedid, 58, billed for psychotherapy sessions said to have taken place on dates he was out of town, out of the country or when his patients had already been released from the hospital, he told U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz.

Yedid also over-billed Medicare for consultations, he said.

Yedid practiced at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, Continental Rehabilitation Hospital in San Diego and offices in San Diego and Del Mar during the time he filed false billing claims.

Yedid faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced June 30.