A motion filed on behalf of a former Archbold Medical Center president and CEO — convicted in federal court a month ago — says the defendant was deprived of a fair trial.

Ken B. Beverly was found guilty on six counts in Valdosta U.S. District Court. Jurors found Beverly guilty Dec. 8 of participating in fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in Medicaid funding.

The counts each carry maximum penalties of 10 or 20 years in prison. Each has a maximum fine of $250,000.

William Sellers, former Archbold chief financial officer, entered a guilty plea in the case and testified for the prosecution at Beverly’s 10-day trial.

Sentencing has not been scheduled for either defendant.

The Beverly motion says the court abused its discretion by excluding polygraph examination results from evidence.

Also, Beverly’s right to a fair trial was prejudiced, because the prosecutor engaged in vituperative, or verbally abusive, characterizations of the defendant, the motion says.

According to the document, the court abused its discretion by failing to issue specific curative jury instructions concerning the settlement amount between Archbold and the U.S. Department of Justice.

The court also abused its

discretion, the document shows, by failing to instruct the jury that to find Beverly guilty on two certain counts, jurors had to find that Beverly knew his conduct would be subject to a federal

 investigation.

The motion argues that the court held the polygraph exam did not meet federal rulings, because the defendant submitted to the examination with no notice to or participation by the government.

“The exclusion of the evidence greatly prejudiced Mr. Beverly’s defense,” the motion says. “The government tried this case by assassinating Mr. Beverly’s character through improper character evidence and challenging his truthfulness and credibility.”

The motion claims the government “paraded many witnesses who improperly testified about Mr. Beverly’s character, his character traits” and acts otherwise prohibited by a federal ruing. The prosecutor’s questioning of the defendant on cross-examination was “out of line” and an obvious violation of a federal ruling, according to the motion.

Also, the motion says, the government solicited inadmissible information to prove Beverly acted in conformity to negative character traits on particular occasions mentioned in the indictment.

The document claims a prosecutor “must refrain from conduct, such as improper characterization of defendant, that is calculated to produce wrongful conviction.”

“On countless occasions, the prosecutor and government witnesses referred to Mr. Beverly as ‘micromanager,’ ‘pit bull with PMS,’ ‘controlling,’ ‘domineering,’ ‘the boss,’ ‘financial genius’ and ‘very knowledgeable in Medicaid and Medicare,’ “ the motion says.

“The government deliberately painted the picture of Mr. Beverly as a controlling maniac, micromanager and a bully throughout the trial. It dragged this negative character evidence and specific acts ‘in by the heels for the sake of its prejudicial effect,’ ” the document continued.

Referring to Sellers as the government’s “star witness,” the motion says Beverly wrote a detailed theory of defense — four and a half pages — about the former Archbold CFO’s intent, motive and opportunity to falsify City of Thomasville Hospital Authority meeting minutes and attestations of public status.”

“This court rewrote Mr. Beverly’s theory of defense instruction, reducing it to a single page,” the motion says.