Courtroom heats up in Ole Pettersen / Medicaid Fraud case

By Megan Koskovich

UTICA - Tensions mount in the Oneida County Courtroom over whether a judge should recuse himself from a case.

The case at question is the one of Ole Pettersen - the former director for the Center for Addiction and Recovery. He's accused of bilking Medicaid out of half a million dollars.

On Thursday, his attorney expected Judge Michael Dwyer to recuse himself due to what he's calling a "conflict of interest."

But that didn't happen.

Frank Pollicelli - who is representing Pettersen - wants Judge Dwyer to recuse himself from the case. The reason being that Dwyer's Clerk Carl Del Buono - was Chairman of the Board of Directors for Insight House around the time of the alleged crime.

Policelli explained in court that a harsh letter-writing campaign started after a contract was supposedly awarded to the Center for Addiction and Recovery (CAR) over Insight House in Herkimer County in 2003.

Policelli says in the letter that it appears that Insight House became upset with the loss and started to what he says complain about the contract and blast CAR.

He says words were also exchanged on CAR's end as well.

His reasoning for the recusal is not based on the integrity of the court or the judge. He says it's to uphold an appearance of being unbiased.

"It may come out during the course of the trial that the motive of prosecution is based on the Administration Agency Oasis is trying to find something bad to say about CAR - perhaps motivated through insight house," Policelli said.

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