Pubdate: Thu, 05 Apr 2001
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Jim Haley, Herald Writer
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n615/a03.html, 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n606/a07.html

DRUG PROBE PROVED RUINOUS

Ex-Sheriff's Wife Claims Charges Led To Disgrace

In late May 1995, Susan Murphy said she learned that the state Board of 
Pharmacy was investigating her husband, then Snohomish County Sheriff 
Patrick Murphy.

He had been involved in a series of serious accidents since 1988, and was 
under heavy medication.

"I thought it was absurd that somebody would try to investigate somebody 
for seeking medical care," she told a Snohomish County Superior Court jury 
Wednesday.

But the investigation turned into criminal charges by a special prosecutor, 
and the loss of an election in November of that year, thrusting her husband 
and family into financial turmoil and disgrace.

Susan Murphy testified Wednesday in a civil lawsuit her family has filed 
against the state for allegedly improperly obtaining confidential 
prescription information from local pharmacies and sharing it with county 
officials.

The state maintains it and the Pharmacy Board did nothing wrong.

Susan Murphy led jurors down a long road of injuries suffered by her 
husband before and after the investigation, which broke in 1995. She also 
detailed the number of prescriptions, some of them narcotics, that were 
required to keep her husband functioning.

Under questions by the Murphys' attorney, Mark Northcraft, she also told 
about the series of doctors Patrick Murphy visited to get relief from pain 
and to correct numerous injuries he had suffered. Those include three 
serious spinal injuries suffered between 1991 and 1993, and a jaw injury he 
suffered in the line of duty in 1988.

Each of them required prescribed medication to control the pain, which she 
said never stopped.

So, she said, he decided to stop his pain medication.

He experienced "high levels of uncontrollable pain," she said. He vomited, 
broke out in cold sweat and passed out several times. "He was basically 
incapacitated in every way."

He tried jaw surgery, and it appeared to work for a while during the time 
he was seeking election to the post to which he had been appointed in May 
of that year.

For the first time since 1988, Michael Murphy was free of pain, she said, 
and her husband was "energetic" in battling for election. He won the 
primary in September and was to face off against Republican Rick Bart in 
November.

Susan Murphy said she had thought the investigation over pain medication 
had gone away until shortly after the primary, when she learned the case 
would be handled by a special prosecutor.

"I couldn't believe it," she said. Her husband underwent surgery, and 
"that's what he thought the public wanted."

Although close friends and family kept campaigning, others drifted away. He 
was finally charged with fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs about a 
week before the election, and he lost to Bart.

"I felt like life had just ended," she said after charges were filed.

Susan Murphy, who was on the witness stand more than a day, underwent cross 
examination by Gregory Jackson, assistant attorney general.

Jackson asked if her husband had withheld information about his injuries 
and the pain medication he was taking.

"I don't believe it was withheld," she said. "If they had asked, they would 
have been told."

The trial in Judge Ronald Castleberry's courtroom began this week and will 
continue two or three weeks. The Murphys are seeking up to $10 million in 
damages.