Former Cox employees want to know if criminal investigation continues

Two former CoxHealth employees filed documents in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri asking what the government intends to do now that a grand jury's session has closed without seeking any indictments in a Medicare fraud investigation.
In documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Roger Cochran and Dennis Morris, who claim they were fired after they took information about illegal activity at Cox to the government, ask the government if it intends to continue investigating Cox officials, and if it does not plan to do so, asks that a stay in the wrongful dismissal lawsuit be lifted so they may continue the discovery process.
The court papers indicated Cochran and Morris went along with the government's request for a delay in the lawsuit, "believing that some form of grand jury action was likely imminent."
Since the government took no action, the document says, Cochran and Morris intend to continue with their suit. "Plaintiffs feel strongly that any individuals guilty of misconduct should be brought to justice."
The document continues, "However, in fairness to the individual plaintiffs, who have now waited more than a year to even begin discovery, they are entitled to some assurance that the prejudice they will face due to the continued delay in their civil case will not be in vain."
The former employees say they will agree to a continuation of the stay if the criminal investigation continues and is or will be the subject of further grand jury procedure." That would require that a new grand jury be impaneled.
In their motion, Cochran and Morris ask to be allowed to conduct limited discovery into job performance issues that have nothing to do with the government investigation.
One person the fired employees ask to depose is Charles McCracken, chief administrator of Ferrell Duncan Clinic. "The government's previous filings have not indicated that Mr. McCracken is the subject and/or target of the federal investigation. Therefore, there is no reason not to proceed with Mr. McCracken's deposition or to believe that he will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights."
More background can be found in the June 8, 2005 Turner Report.