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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

PENSACOLA DIVISION

United States of America

ex rel. Rayme M. Edler, M.D.

Plaintiffs, 

v. Case 3:20-cv-05503-RV-HTC

Escambia County

Defendant.

_____________________________/

Joint Status Report

The Scheduling Order entered October 27, 2022 directed the parties to file a 

joint status report by the end of every month, beginning January 31, 2023, which 

sets out whether the Order’s schedule is being met “and any new developments that 

need to be addressed or the times set out herein revisited.” Doc. 68 at 1-2.

I. Joint Report

A. Discovery

The parties agree that discovery is extensive including anticipated discovery

relating to new allegations in Edler’s Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”). Dr. 

Edler promulgated a Fifth Request for the Production of Documents largely related 

to the new allegations in the SAC on December 22, 2022, the same day the Court 

Ordered that the SAC be unsealed. Escambia has requested an additional 39 days to 

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respond with objections or responses to the Fifth Request for Production of 

Documents and counsel are scheduled to discuss the Fifth Request on February 8, 

2023. 

Dr. Edler’s counsel sent a letter to Escambia’s Counsel on November 30, 

2022, detailing a number of deficiencies with respect to Escambia’s responses to 

and production of documents related to Dr. Edler’s First, Second, Third, and Fourth 

Requests for the Production of Documents (all such requests then promulgated).1

Counsel began to discuss the deficiencies on December 28, 2022 and had another 

call to discuss the remaining deficiencies on January 23, 2023. A number of issues 

remain open and counsel continue to work through them. 

The parties continue to discuss the nature of a stipulation which might 

obviate the production of at least a portion of the documents the Court ordered 

Escambia to produce on September 30, 2022. 

The most recent version of the proposed stipulation was sent to Escambia’s 

counsel by Plaintiff’s counsel on December 12, 2022. Counsel held a call to discuss 

the stipulation on January 18, 2023, and are scheduled to discuss it again on 

February 1, 2023. No stipulation has yet been presented to Escambia’s Board of 

Commissioners.

1 Defendant’s counsel received the letter on December 7, 2022 due to the email 

ending up in the spam folder and not the inbox folder.

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B. Joint Report on New Developments

On December 22, 2022, the Court unsealed Dr. Edler’s Second Amended 

Complaint. The SAC alleges Escambia upcoded many tens of thousands of claims. 

Doc. 59 at 31, 33, 53-55.

Discovery and evidence relevant to these new allegations is at least in part 

distinct from discovery related to the allegations in the Original and First Amended 

Complaints. 

On December 22, 2022, the same day the Court unsealed the SAC, Dr. Edler 

promulgated her Fifth Request for Production of Documents largely focused on the 

new allegations in the SAC on December 29, 2022, Escambia requested a thirtyday extension of time to respond to the Second Amended Complaint. A few weeks 

later Escambia told Dr. Edler it would not be able to respond to the Second 

Amended Complaint, containing 225 paragraphs, until February 10, 2023. Dr. 

Edler agreed to not oppose Escambia’s anticipated motion. 

On January 18, 2023, Escambia requested, and Dr. Edler agreed to, an 

extension of 39 days to respond to Dr. Edler’s Fifth Request for Production of 

Documents. Counsel plan to meet and confer regarding the Fifth Request for 

Production in advance of Escambia submitting a formal response with the joint goal 

of eliminating unnecessary objections and modifying the requests where appropriate 

and possible.

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The Parties have engaged in numerous discovery conferral conferences, 

including zoom conferences to try to resolve outstanding discovery issues in this 

case. Since this Court’s entry of the Amended scheduling Order on October 27, 

2022 Doc. 67, the Parties have engaged in at least five (5) conference calls 

regarding discovery. 

Although Dr. Edler promulgated discovery immediately upon the unsealing

of the SAC, the Parties believe they will more than likely need additional time to 

conduct discovery given the complex allegations in the Second Amended 

Complaint. 

The Parties continue to meet and confer to work through the many 

outstanding discovery requests. Should the Parties believe that additional time is 

needed, or the outstanding discovery issues cannot be resolved, the Parties will file 

motions to compel and/or notify the Court in its February 2023 Joint Status Report.

II. Conclusion 

The parties anticipate requesting additional extensions of the case schedule 

given the need to conduct discovery related to the new allegations raised in the 

Second Amended Complaint and the fact that the parties continue to discuss 

compliance with all of Dr. Edler’s outstanding requests for production of 

documents, resolving the County’s objections to certain requests for production, and 

compliance with the Court’s existing discovery Order. 

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/s/ Jonathan Kroner

FBN 328677

Jonathan Kroner Law Office

6001 N Ocean Dr. Ste 806

Hollywood, FL 33019-4617

305.310.6046

jk@FloridaFalseClaim.com

Law Offices of Darth M. Newman 

LLC

Darth M. Newman

1140 Thorn Run Rd., #601

Coraopolis, PA 15108

412.436.3443

darth@dnewmanlaw.com

(admitted pro hac vice)

Attorneys for Qui Tam Plaintiff

Relator Rayme M. Edler, M.D

/s/ Katherine Gudaitis__

Katherine Gudaitis, ESQ.

FBN: 106954

kg@lydecker.com

Stephanie Pidermann

FBN :60414

sp@lydecker.com

Lydecker LLP

1221 Brickell Ave, Fl. 19

Miami, Florida 33131

Telephone: 305-416-3180

Attorneys for Escambia County

LR 7.1 (F) Certificate of Word Count

I certify the LR 7.1 (F) word count is 937 words. I relied on MS Word’s count 

for this certification. 

/s/ Katherine Gudaitis

Certificate of Service

I certify I electronically filed the foregoing document with the Clerk of Court 

using CM/ECF on the date stamped above to be served on all counsel of record.

/s/ Katherine Gudaitis

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