Pubdate: Sat, 21 May 2005
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2005 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author:Peter Franceschina
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/rush+limbaugh

PROSECUTORS: HAND OVER LIMBAUGH'S RECORDS

Now that a judge, an appeals court and the Florida Supreme Court have
said Palm Beach County prosecutors properly seized Rush Limbaugh's
medical records, prosecutors are asking that the records be turned
over to them.

The records, seized from four doctors in late 2003 as part of an
investigation in Limbaugh's prescription drug use, are under seal in
the possession of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff.

Prosecutors filed a motion Thursday asking Winikoff to turn the
records over to them, and a hearing on the issue is scheduled for
Monday morning.

Limbaugh, 54, a Palm Beach resident, has not been charged with any
crimes.

Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, filed motions on Friday saying that
Winikoff should not decide the issue and cited a ruling from the 4th
District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach.

That ruling upheld the decision by prosecutors to seize the records
using search warrants. It also said Black could ask the judge who
issued the warrants to review the records to determine which of them
are relevant to the investigation.

Prosecutors are simply asking that all the records be turned
over.

Palm Beach Circuit Judge Thomas Barkdull issued three of the four
search warrants. A judge in Los Angeles issued the fourth search
warrant for one of Limbaugh's doctors, an ear specialist, there.

Black said in his court filings that Barkdull should review the
records and determine which of them are relevant.

Winikoff was the first judge to get the case, and he determined
prosecutors were entitled to all the records.

Prosecutors have said in a letter to Black that they believe Limbaugh
committed doctor-shopping felonies by secretly obtaining overlapping
prescriptions from different doctors in a one-month period.

Black argues that the records should be limited to the time between
March 2003 and September 2003. Prosecutors cited that time frame in
their search warrants, saying pharmacy records showed Limbaugh picked
up 1,733 hydrocodone pills, 90 OxyContin pills, 50 Xanax tablets and
40 pills of time-release morphine from different doctors. Prosecutors
want all the records, regardless of the time they cover.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin