Daily News from New York, New York • 7

DAILY HEWS -O -fr 7 Tuesday, May 23, 1989 Fugitive mailed Medicaid scam Hug Mhwm Bog mmm By JARED McCALUSTER and RUTH LANDA Daily News Staff Writers Medicaid thief Sheldon Weinberg, who stole $16 million to live the high life and spent five months on the lam to avoid prison, began a 7-to-21-year sentence yesterday after a Brooklyn judge blasted the theft as a "crime of violence." It was the largest Medicaid fraud in history. Weinberg's sons Jay, the mastermind, and Ronald were' convicted with him last November and imprisoned. But Weinberg never showed up for sentencing Jan. 10, and disappeared with wife, Roslyn. He was arrested in Arizona last week after NBCrTV's "Unsolved Mysteries" aired the story of his conviction and "authorities got a tip that the couple, using the name DeVita, was in Scottsdale.

Yesterday, Weinberg, 64, was back in the courtroom of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ruth Moskowitz, who had presided over his trial and sentenced him in absentia. Not 'white-collar' The judge, executing the sentence, said she had read reports of the arrest that quoted Weinberg as telling agents, "All this for white-collar crime." "I do not regard this as a white-collar grime," Moskowitz declared. "This is a crime of violence against all MEDICAID BILKER Sheldon Weinberg (left) appears with his attorney, Maurice Sercarz, before Justice Ruth Moskowitz yesterday. DAILY NEWS a family corrupted and ultimately destroyed by greed." Roslyn Weinberg was not in court. Asked later if she would be prosecuted in the case, Harrow said, "My office the people of New York City.

"It is a crime of violence to the Medicaid recipients who should be receiving the best medical care," she said. "Medicaid funds should not go so people can live in Trump Tower." Special Assistant Attorney General Richard Harrow said the jailing "marked an end to a sad and tragic tale of This story was reported by Daily News staff writers Jamcs Duody, Boa KAppsTAirra, luxx KmsczL and Atmo Lucxamo. It was written by Kappstatter. will go after everyone who broke the law." Outside court, Weinberg's lawyer, Maurice Sercarz, said the judge should have imposed a lighter sentence because the 7 to 21-year term would effectively make his client's wife a widow. Weinberg and his sons bilked the state of $16 million by submitting thousands of phony Medicaid reimbursement claims in the names of poor people who had sought treatment at the Weinbergs' now-defunct Bedford-Stuyve-sant Health Care Corp.

clinics between 1980 and 1987. The theft, the largest since Medicaid was set up 22 years ago to provide health care to the poor, financed a life of luxury for the Weinberg family, officials said. There were apartments in Trump Tower, a $45 million mansion in Boca Raton, a 32-foot yacht and a fleet of Rolls-Royces and other cars. When Sheldon and Roslyn Weinberg fled their rented Long Island home in January, they left behind 50 pairs of shoes, monogrammed towels from the Helmsley Palace and an empty safe. Authorities recovered $5 million to $7 million and yesterday Harrow vowed that the office of nursing home prosecutor Edward Kur-iansky would try to find the i rest of aiemissingjfunds.rt p.m.

Sunday, saying her son was having trouble breathing. When the ambulance came, Luke refused to ride in it and left the apartment in the. project on 12th St, Coleman said. In the lobby, Luke met two housing police officers responding to his mother's call, "Our information is that he assaulted the cops," said Coleman. 'They restrained him.

The mother heard the scuffle, came downstairs and saw the cops restraining him. She told us she didn't see any evidence of injuries or anything improper." Luke was arrested and taken to a police holding cell on 21st St, "where he sort of goes crazy and starts banging his head against the wall. Two vials of crack rolled out of his jacket," said Coleman. But Luke's mother yesterday disputed Coleman's version, saying, "My son was beaten. I want the cops suspended and I want justice.

I saw my son pinned on the ground. I told the cops, 'Don't hit They had a nightstick right up under his throat" The death of a Queens man in custody for allegedly assaulting city housing police sparked a demonstration last night that snarled evening rush-hour traffic on the Queensboro Bridge. Traffic was stopped in both directions for half an hour after 200 demonstrators blocked the roadway about 6:30 p.m. They then marched back to the nearby Queensbridge public housing project, where Richard Luke, 25, was arrested Sunday night after a Struggle with housing officers. Luke died early yesterday at City Hospital Center, Elmhurst Cardiac arrest was listed as the preliminary cause of death.

He had been placed in a holding cell at the project's police station, where housing police said he began banging his head on the walls and floor before being restrained and taken to the hospital by ambulance. But several angry project residents charged that housing police beat Luke, a jobless construction worker, before and after he was arrested and handcuffed. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who said he was called by Luke's family, charged that his death was "outright murder by police." 1 Sharpton, who led the demonstration at the bridge, said he wants the involved officers suspended, and a federal investigation of the incident. Protest march planned He said he plans to lead a protest march this morning from the project, in Long Island City, to Queens District Attorney John Santucci's office in Kew Gardens.

Both Santucci's office and the housing police internal affairs unit are investigating the incident Housing Authority spokesman Val Coleman said Luke's mother, Patricia Garcia, called for an ambulance at 11 f- 'A.