Pubdate: Thu, 14 Apr 2005
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
896 01.xml
Copyright: 2005 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Michael Perlstein
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

3 OF 4 RELEASED IN PAIN CLINIC RAIDS

Mothers Of Patients Who Overdosed Testify

Rejecting government arguments that the owner of three high-volume pain 
management clinics and the doctors she employed were as dangerous as 
street-corner drug dealers, a federal magistrate allowed the release 
Wednesday of three of the four defendants arrested Tuesday in surprise 
raids of the clinics and four associated pharmacies.

But U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore Jr. imposed high bail and stringent 
conditions on the defendants after hearing several hours of powerful 
testimony in which witnesses portrayed Scherer's Medical Center clinics as 
illegal pill factories that fueled the narcotics addictions of hundreds of 
patients, including many who presented no evidence of medical problems.

Moore set a $500,000 property bond for the owner of the clinics, Cherlyn 
"Cookie" Armstrong Prejean, and ordered her to surrender her nursing 
license and passport. Prejean, 45, owns and operates Scherer's clinics in 
Slidell, Metairie and Gretna, as well as branches of Mia's Pharmacy next 
door to the Metairie and Slidell clinics.

Moore also allowed the release of two of the clinic's doctors -- Betty 
DeLoach and Joseph Guenther -- on $100,000 personal surety bonds provided 
that they no longer write prescriptions or practice pain management. Family 
members were allowed to sign the surety bonds after promising they would 
cover the bail amounts in the case of a missed court appearance.

The bail hearing for the fourth defendant, Dr. Suzette Cullins, 43, was 
postponed until she could hire an attorney.

Emotional Testimony

Moore ruled after a long and emotion-packed hearing during which the 
mothers of three young clinic patients testified for the government. Each 
of the patients overdosed several times after taking Scherer's standard 
pill regimen: the so-called "holy trinity" of painkiller Lorcet, 
anti-anxiety drug Xanax and muscle relaxer Soma. One of the patients was 
driven into psychosis after two overdoses and eventually committed suicide, 
the patient's mother testified as she crumpled into sobs in the witness chair.

"The allegations are grave, but they are not proven," Moore said in his 
ruling. "Anyone has to feel for the people who testified here today. It 
touches our legal bone marrow. But we can't make rulings based on emotion."

St. Bernard Parish Coroner Bryan Bertucci testified that the abuse of 
prescription drugs, especially the combination prescribed by Scherer's 
cash-only clinics to hundreds of patients every day, is his parish's 
biggest drug problem, leading to more than 30 deaths in each of the past 
three years.

After prosecutors introduced the pastel-colored preprinted prescriptions 
used by Scherer's to dole out the "trinity," Bertucci said, "Taken by 
themselves, people can safely take those doses. When they combine them, 
they overdose and they die."

'Even Worse'

Lead prosecutor Tony Sanders said Prejean's clinics helped fuel an epidemic 
of drug addiction under the guise of proper medical treatment. Sanders 
softened his position on detention for DeLoach, 66, and Guenther, 71, when 
the federal pretrial services office recommended bail based in part on the 
defendants' ages and health problems.

But he vigorously argued that Prejean remain locked up.

"Cookie Armstrong Prejean basically ran a drug organization, just as a drug 
dealer would run a Schedule I drug ring," Sanders said, referring to 
federal cases against cocaine and heroin dealers. "Her dealers weren't the 
people you normally see making hand-to-hand transactions. They were 
doctors. . . . In some ways, that's even worse than a Schedule I drug ring."

Sanders also characterized Prejean as a flight risk, detailing the $4 
million in frozen assets in Prejean's bank accounts and the $1.6 million 
found stashed in bags, boxes and safes in her Eastover home. Internal 
Revenue Service investigators said about $1.2 million remains missing based 
on cash profits Prejean's businesses hauled in since the beginning of 2004.

But Prejean's attorney, Sal Panzeca, accused the government of 
"grandstanding," unfairly portraying a busy, tax-paying business owner as a 
common criminal.

"What was presented by the government today was a lot of hoopla," Panzeca 
said. "They put on those crying mothers for what reason?" Then, pointing to 
his client, he asked, "Is it that little lady's problem that their sons had 
drug problems?"

The defendants are each charged with conspiracy to illegally distribute 
controlled substances; Prejean and Cullins face an additional charge of 
distributing the drugs to people younger than 21. Both drug charges carry a 
five-year maximum prison sentence. Prejean, using her married name instead 
of her business name used in court documents, also faces a money-laundering 
charge, which carries up to 10 years in prison.
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