Pubdate: Wed, 24 Mar 2004
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2004 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Penny Brown Roberts, Advocate staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

EDWARDS WANTS TO SEE POLOZOLA MEDICAL RECORDS

Attorneys for former Gov. Edwin Edwards are asking a Baton Rouge state 
judge to let them see the medical records of U.S. District Judge Frank 
Polozola. A motion filed Tuesday seeks depositions the federal judge, his 
psychiatrist and his psychologist gave in a 1998 civil lawsuit.

State District Judge Janice Clark, who presided over Polozola's case, has 
scheduled a hearing for April 19. The case was settled in 2001.

The documents are expected to provide insight into Polozola's physical and 
mental state during Edwards' extortion trial.

The former governor's attorneys want the records to help make their case in 
federal court that Edwards' conviction should be tossed because pain pills 
made Polozola "erratic, even paranoid."

They've also requested that Polozola not be allowed to make the decision 
about vacating the verdict.

Polozola was involved in an accident on Interstate 10 in March 1997. He 
filed a civil suit in September of that year, claiming his back and left 
shoulder were injured in the wreck, and that he suffered "mental anguish" 
and "impairment of function."

Records filed in the case indicate the judge filled OxyContin prescriptions 
in the spring and summer of 1999 -- around the time of pretrial hearings in 
the case against Edwards and his son, Stephen.

Judge Clark sealed the testimony of Polozola, Dr. Mark Zielinski and Ann 
Bottimore at Polozola's request. The defendants in the case did not object.

The depositions "contain critical information bearing directly on" the 
Edwardses' claim, attorney Mike Small wrote in the motion seeking to 
intervene in the state civil suit.

"Their rights were violated by Judge Polozola's decision to specifically 
assign their cases to himself," Small wrote, "and to preside over the cases 
at a time when he was 'impaired in function' and taking narcotic 
painkillers, including OxyContin, to alleviate his pain and suffering."

Small did not return a call to his Alexandria office Tuesday afternoon 
seeking comment.

A jury in May 2000 convicted Edwards, his son, Stephen, and three other men 
of extorting riverboat casino license applicants.

The 76-year-old Edwards is serving a 10-year sentence at a federal prison 
in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-peals upheld the conviction, and the 
Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Polozola has said he does not comment on pending cases. Edward J. Walters 
Jr. of Baton Rouge, who represented the judge in the civil suit, did not 
return a call to his office Tuesday.

In a motion filed in the federal case Monday, prosecutors dubbed the 
allegations about Polozola's use of prescription narcotics "slanderous" and 
"ugly."

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten of New Orleans said Tuesday he hasn't read the 
latest motion and doesn't want to comment on matters pending before a 
federal court. "We'll be speaking loudly and plainly enough through our 
pleadings," Letten said.
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