{West Virginia}...Mingo County Dr. Katherine Hoover faces possible court sanctions after failing to appear in a federal case arising from the March 2010 raid on the Mountain Medical Care Center in Williamson. Hoover failed to appear Tuesday for questioning under oath in a civil deposition after being ordered to do so by a U.S. District Court judge and a federal magistrate. Federal prosecutors were seeking Hoover's testimony in a civil case targeting $88,029 seized at the same time of the raid. Investigators suspect the Williamson clinic operated illegally as a pill mill, and the pending civil case filed by prosecutors seeks to make Hoover forfeit the money. But Hoover has cited how a judge has ordered prosecutors to return another $27,672 seized during the raid, after prosecutors conceded that the money did not come from her work at the clinic. No criminal charges have been filed, but prosecutors say the investigation continues. Hoover told the court in a filing last week that she would not attend the deposition, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination under the U.S. Constitution. Defending herself without a lawyer, Hoover suggested in a separate filing that the case had been dismissed. She also continues to allege that the federal government has no jurisdiction over the practice of medicine.
