{"id":24324,"date":"2016-06-13T20:27:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T03:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=24324"},"modified":"2016-06-13T20:28:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T03:28:28","slug":"judge-guilty-conspiring-retaliate-informant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=24324","title":{"rendered":"Judge Guilty of Conspiring to Retaliate Against Informant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>KENTUCKY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14523 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Courtroom-300x160.jpg\" alt=\"Courtroom\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" \/>A former social security Chief Administrative Law Judge plead guilty Monday in federal court for conspiring to retaliate against a former employee of the Social Security Administration who provided information regarding potential corruption and fraud to federal investigators, officials announced.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Charlie Paul Andrus<\/strong>, 66, of Huntington, West Virginia, plead guilty to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to retaliate against an informant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Andrus had been an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration for nearly 28 years, where he was responsible for adjudicating claims for disability benefits on behalf of the SSA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In 1997, Andrus was promoted to the position of Chief Administrative Law Judge for the hearing office located in Huntington.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">According to court documents, on May 19, 2011, federal agents went to the Huntington hearing office and began securing evidence and interviewing witnesses as part of an investigation into allegations of potential corruption and fraud at the hearing office purportedly committed by <strong>Administrative Law Judge David Black Daugherty<\/strong> and an attorney in Kentucky, Eric <strong>Christopher Conn.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">That same day, The Wall Street Journal published an article critical of the Huntington hearing office, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Andrus admitted that the article was personally embarrassing, as it cast both him and the Huntington hearing office in a negative light. Because of the article and the criminal investigation, Andrus was demoted from his position as Chief Administrative Law Judge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Andrus admitted that at the time of his demotion, he was aware that an Social Security employee from the hearing office was meeting with investigators and relaying information about potential federal offenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">According to his plea agreement, Andrus met with Conn shortly after the article was published and the two devised and implemented a plan to discredit the informant.\u00a0The plan involved filming the informant violating a program that allowed employees to work from home, with the hope that the informant would be terminated as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">By pleading guilty, Andrus admitted that he was aware that the Social Security employee reported truthful information to federal investigators and that he wanted to retaliate against the employee by interfering with the employee\u2019s employment and livelihood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In a related case, Conn and Daugherty were charged in an 18-count indictment with conspiracy, fraud, obstruction, false statement and money laundering in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $600 million in federal disability payments for thousands of claimants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">That indictment included charges related to the conduct that forms the basis of Andrus\u2019 guilty plea. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former social security Chief Administrative Law Judge plead guilty Monday in federal court for conspiring to retaliate against a former employee of the Social Security Administration who provided information regarding potential corruption and fraud to federal investigators, officials announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[2753,1669],"class_list":["post-24324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-chief-administrative-law-judge","tag-social-security-administration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judge Guilty of Conspiring to Retaliate Against Informant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former social security Chief Administrative Law Judge plead guilty Monday in federal court for conspiring to retaliate against a former employee of the 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