The Internet is fascinating. It provides a wealth of factual knowledge at your fingertips. With a click of a button information can be shared with thousands of people.
However, as I recently discovered, there is also a dark side of the Internet. Inaccurate and false information can be shared easily and with little recourse.
I found this out the day I opened up Facebook to discover information that had been shared about one of my reporters, LaDonna Humphrey.
I’ve known LaDonna Humphrey for over a decade. We share a passion for writing and for true crime. Over the years she has provided content for my use on a variety of online platforms.
However, all of that stopped in late 2018. LaDonna went completely silent.
While her writing contributions were greatly missed, as a friend, I was more concerned about her well-being. For the most part, my calls, texts and messages went unanswered. I knew something was wrong.
The day I opened up Facebook to see her mug shot plastered all over the Internet along with a video of her leaving the Benton County jail, I knew I had been right.
Something was wrong.
I immediately decided to investigate because none of what I was reading about my long-time friend was adding up. This could not be the LaDonna Humphrey I knew – a Christian mother of seven children, a foster parent advocate and champion, true crime writer, and so much more.
As I suspected, there was so much more to this story than I could ever imagine.
I began my investigation by reading what was being posted by Anthony Christopher (Rocko) – (Christopher legally changed his name in 2015.)
Name change information can be found here:
Christopher was openly posting court documents about Humphrey on his personal Facebook pages. A simple search of court records led me to find a lawsuit that was filed by Christopher against LaDonna Humphrey in October of 2018.
The link to the lawsuit can be found here:
Due to the lengthy nature of this case, I intend to cut right to the chase.
After reading every single court document and spending the time necessary to FOIA important documents, it became clear that it was not LaDonna Humphrey that needed to be “exposed” as Christopher would lead you to believe.
In fact, if you have been paying attention, Christopher has been formally charged with several counts of fraud (including Medicaid fraud) and there is currently a warrant out for his arrest:
We reported on the warrant filed earlier in week in Pulaski County and a link to that article can be found HERE.
I intend to present the facts of this case and let you, the reader, decide for yourself.
The crux of Christopher’s lawsuit is simple. He claims Humphrey slandered him and his company – Absolute Pediatric Therapy. Right off the bat, Christopher accuses Humphrey of slandering him to the following people and/or businesses:
Mary’s Little Lambs Preschool
Bright Beginnings
Kindergrove.
Direct Primary Care – Dr. Joel Fankhauser.
Christopher goes on to accuse Humphrey of stealing trade secret and confidential information for use at her then employer – Regional Therapy Services.
Immediately after these accusations are filed, Humphrey provides proof in SWORN affidavits and other written documentation that proves these allegations to be false.
As you can see, these sworn statements completely negate Christopher’s claims.
In fact, and I am jumping ahead of myself, Christopher has now followed Humphrey to bankruptcy court (Humphrey filed bankruptcy after Judge Xollie Duncan ignored all evidence presented that negated Christopher's claims against Humphrey.
Judge Xolline Duncan then ruled for Christopher and placed a Judgment against Humphrey for over 3 MILLION DOLLARS!
What is happening with our legal system? When did our elected Judges stop looking at FACTS and instead believe false allegations? I would like to tell you that this story gets better and that justice prevails however, that is not how this played out in Judge Xollie Duncan’s courtroom.
More on that miscarriage of justice in a future installment.
In response to Christopher’s lawsuit, Humphrey filed a counterclaim. This is where the pieces start to come together. In her counterclaim, Humphrey accuses Anthony Christopher and Absolute Pediatric Therapy of Medicaid Fraud.
Humphrey alleges that she was in fact not terminated from Absolute Pediatric Therapy. Instead, she resigned within days of discovering the Medicaid Fraud – fraud that was being perpetrated against CHILDREN and worse yet, children in the FOSTER CARE SYSTEM.
Humphrey goes on to explain in her counterclaim that she turned Absolute Pediatric Therapy in for Medicaid Fraud on September 13th, 2018.
You can read Humphrey’s counter claim here:
I immediately began to wonder if Christopher’s lawsuit against Humphrey had something to do with her Medicaid Fraud allegations? And if Humphrey suspected Medicaid Fraud, did others suspect as well?
Turns out they did.
IF you go back and look closer at the sworn affidavit signed by Dr. Joel Fankhauser on October 30, 2018. He makes some important statements:
“During the summer of 2018, I became uncomfortable with Absolute Pediatric Therapy and I began to look for other providers to which I could refer my patients.
After I had decided not to refer other patients to Absolute Pediatric Therapy, LaDonna Humphrey came to me for advice about some observations she had about her employer Absolute Pediatric Therapy. This meeting took place on September 13, 2018.
LaDonna described some of what I had suspected but went further and asked what she should do.
“Subsequent to my conversation with LaDonna, I had a conversation with another former employee of Absolute Pediatric Therapy that SUPPORTED LaDonna’s allegations.."
It’s very clear from this sworn statement that Dr. Joel Fankhauser, too, had suspicions about Absolute Pediatric Therapy. It’s also very clear that Dr. Fankhauser had spoken to another party that also had their own story and suspicions about Absolute Pediatric Therapy.
The story doesn’t stop there. In response to an FOIA I filed, the Bentonville Public Schools provided me with an interesting document regarding Absolute Pediatric Therapy .
The Bentonville Public Schools provided me with an audit of Absolute Pediatric Therapy. In this document, OMIG (The Office of the Medicaid Inspector General) is recapping a desk review of the Absolute Pediatric Therapy facility.
According to the document, this review took place in July of 2018. In this document, it is clear that the audit produced “findings” and that Absolute Pediatric Therapy was required to submit a Corrective Action Plan.
And on page 2 of the desk review in the second paragraph, you will find this statement: "This review resulted from a complaint received on the OMIG fraud hotline alleging that Absolute Pediatric Services has improper billing and service delivery."
The review details out several “findings” from that audit; however, the financial amounts that were being requested of Absolute Pediatric Services to PAY BACK to the Arkansas Medicaid Program have been redacted. These numbers were redacted when I received the document.
But wait! There’s still more. In a Motion to Quash a subpoena to Jana Hines (a therapist and former employee of Absolute Pediatric therapy), the attorney for Hines makes this statement:
“That the documents requested of Janna Hines do not exist. The only correspondence Mrs. Hines has sent to anyone or any place would be the Arkansas Attorney General’s office at their request…
This said Subpoena is simply served for the purpose of harassing Janna Hines and to intimidate her in cooperating with government authorities in an official investigation of Absolute Pediatric Therapy and Anthony Christopher.”
Link to this document found here:
It is clear from these statements that Janna Hines is aware of Mediciad Fraud and that she is cooperating in an OFFICIAL investigation of this fraud that is being conducted by the Attorney General’s office.
At this point, I am knee deep in this investigation and I am determined to track down the truth in all of the allegations Christopher has made against Humphrey.
It didn’t take long for me to uncover more damning information against Christopher. And as you can imagine, by this point, I am concerned.
I am concerned that Christopher has abused the legal system (and social media) to spread blatant lies against LaDonna Humphrey – lies in which she and her attorney, Thomas Stockland, have proven repeatedly in sworn affidavits.
I have to wonder why Judge Xollie Duncan and the senior partners at Wright, Lindsey and Jennings aren’t concerned by the behavior of both Christopher and Ritter.
I have repeatedly reached out to LaDonna Humphrey for comment on what was happening and she has repeatedly denied my requests for an interview. Her only words have been “no comment.”
I can’t blame her, can you? Christopher files a lawsuit for slander against Humphrey in which he wins a huge judgment against her. He then goes on to slander Humphrey via social media (what he is trying to do to her is much worse than what she was ever accused of doing to Christopher) and an elected official, Judge Duncan, does nothing.
She just allows it to happen.
What in the hell is happening to the justice system in Benton County Arkansas?
When I asked Thomas Stockland, Humphrey’s attorney, that question, he had this to say: “In my more than 30 years of practicing law, I have never had any other case that leaves me with a complete inability to explain to my client why the Court reached the result it did. The bigger issue is LaDonna was simply reporting a company for Medicaid fraud as a mandatory reporter.
After this experience I would be hesitant to ever suggest that a client work with the attorney general on Medicaid fraud because the accused person continues to receive Medicaid payments and uses them to attempt to destroy a typical working family who doesn’t have the resources to defend an expensive lawsuit
Maybe the better choice is to quit your job and remove yourself from the questionable activity and not report it to anyone.”
When asked why he thinks Christopher has attacked Humphrey so publicly, Stockland had this to say: “Well, he can now use LaDonna as an example of what will happen to anyone who cooperates with the Attorney General or law enforcement. Early on, Jason Hendren offered to drop the litigation if LaDonna would simply recant the accusations she had made to the authorities about Absolute Pediatric. She declined to do that. Jason’s offer made it clear to me what the litigation was really about.”
There is much more to this story and we will follow up with part two on Friday as we investigate the public attacks made against LaDonna Humphrey.
As Mr. Christopher has repeatedly said via social media, “The truth will come out….” and indeed he is correct.
The truth is out. And it’s quite damning for Mr. Christopher.
Please peruse this article from the Shawnee News Star entitled "Labor of Love" referencing some past adventures from Anthony "Rocko" Christopher.
Stay tuned as I continue to report on Christopher and his reign of terror ... a reign that was seemingly in full swing in Shawnee, Oklahoma at one point.
Rest assured. There has been almost a year and a half of research that has gone into preparation for this series.
There is more to come.