The attorney for an Egg Harbor Township doctor jailed on weapons offenses is awaiting news after filing an appeal last week.
Dr. James Kauffman was arrested at his Ocean Heights Avenue office after he pulled a gun June 13, when investigators came with a search warrant to seize evidence in an ongoing investigation into medical fraud, according to the warrant.
At least one of the warrants also mentions “a homicide,” attorney Ed Jacobs said.
That is believed to refer to the May 10, 2010, killing of his wife, veterans advocate and local radio host April Kauffman.
Investigators arrived at his office less than two weeks after a decision on whether he would have to submit DNA in the investigation into his wife’s killing. The decision has been sealed.
Although Kauffman has never been named a suspect in his wife’s death, the investigation has focused only on his, his attorney said. If investigators would move on, the case might be solved, Jacobs has said, insisting on his client’s innocence.”
“I’m not going to jail for this,” Kauffman yelled to police helping serve the warrant at his endocrinology office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW6HwcsMbas
During the standoff with police, he threatened to kill himself. Video from that arrest was presented at a detention hearing held June 19, with Judge Bernard DeLury deciding he should be held pending trial.
“Under the circumstances, he’s in good spirits,” Jacobs told BreakingAC this week when asked how Kauffman is handling life in the county jail.
He said he could not reveal any conversations he’s had with the doctor, but has been in contact with him.
Jacobs filed an appeal in the case last Thursday and is awaiting a decision. Under the new bail reform rules, that decision is supposed to come quickly, but giving any time frame “would be speculating,” Jacobs said.
Meanwhile, some patients still are trying to get their files from Kauffman’s office.
A message on the machine there tells them to first call the spokeswoman for the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.
“A vast majority of the medical files are located at James Kauffman’s office,” according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.
If the office does have a patient’s medical records, “we are making copies and then notifying the individual that the copies are ready for pickup at the ACPO office,” the statement to Breaking AC said. “We are making every effort to ensure the patients of James Kauffman have the documentation they need.”
If the records are at the office, the message there says patients may come by between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until July 21.
