NEW YORK (Reuters)
A married woman accused of billing
her lover's $15,000 penile implant to her union's insurance by
claiming he was her husband pleaded not guilty Monday to fraud
and forgery charges.
The plot unraveled when the woman's unsuspecting husband opened
bills and correspondence from the hospital and the urologist,
prosecutors said.
Jeane Lewis, 43, and her boyfriend, Andre Dovilas, 44, a native
of Haiti, who were released without bail in Manhattan Supreme
Court, face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
According to the criminal complaint, Lewis took her boyfriend to
urologist Bruce Stone for injection therapy for penile
dysfunction in July 1998, introducing him as her husband, Steve
Lewis.
Dovilas signed the assignment of benefits insurance form for
eight visits, which Stone used to obtain payment.
In December it became apparent that Viagra and the injection
therapy were working too well because Dovilas' penis was
perpetually erect. He then underwent a penile implant operation
at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Steve Lewis notified officials that he did not know Stone and
had never been treated by him for a penile dysfunction. He also
tipped off his wife's union, Local 1199, which represents and
insures health care workers, and the police.
