Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 Source: Bristol Herald Courier (VA) Copyright: 2001 Bristol Herald Courier Contact: http://www.bristolnews.com/contact.html Website: http://www.bristolnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1211 Author: Marshall Tobelmann PHYSICIAN CONVICTED OF ILLEGALLY PRESCRIBING PAINKILLERS ABINGDON -- After 16 hours of deliberations over three days, a federal jury found a Bland County physician guilty Tuesday of 266 counts of illegally prescribing narcotic painkillers, including OxyContin. Dr. Freeman Lowell Clark, 43, displayed no emotion as the judge read the verdicts, but his family and friends gasped in disbelief. After court adjourned, Clark calmly hugged his family and kissed his fiancee, Mary Sivert, before federal marshals led him from the courtroom. Clark could face up to 15 years in prison when sentenced later this year, prosecutors said. Defense attorneys argued against jailing Clark until sentencing, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer said federal bond law requires drug offenders to be held in custody. The judge agreed. "The law seems to be pretty clear on this," Ramseyer said. "Dr. Clark would have to be detained." The verdicts came on the 10th day of trial for Clark, who had been charged with 296 counts of distributing controlled drugs -- including OxyContin, Percocet, Tylox, Lortab and Lorcet -- without a legitimate medical purpose. The jury acquitted him of 30 of the counts. Prosecutors portrayed Clark as a "drug dealer in a suit," but defense attorneys said he merely was a good-hearted doctor who wanted to end his patients' suffering. Defense attorneys hinted after the trial that they might appeal the verdicts. "I'm sure there will be post-trial motions to be filed," said attorney Robert Vinyard. Clark is the fifth Southwest Virginia doctor to be convicted in recent months of illegally prescribing narcotics. In May, a federal jury convicted Grundy physician Franklin J. Sutherland on similar charges. More than a third of the counts against Clark involved OxyContin, which has been linked to more than 120 overdose deaths nationwide. Abuse of the drug has reached epidemic levels in the region, and more than three dozen Southwest Virginians have died of overdoses, authorities have said. Clark's offenses occurred between 1999 and 2000 at his clinic, which first was in Bluefield and later moved to Wytheville, then Bland. During the two-week trial, former patients testified that they had been abusing the narcotic pills Clark prescribed, crushing and snorting or injecting them to achieve an intense euphoria. Several witnesses said they were longtime drug abusers before ever meeting Clark, and others said they first became addicts when Clark prescribed powerful narcotics for their pain. Some patients said they were getting narcotics from several doctors at the same time they were seeing Clark, and others said Clark knew they were addicted and did nothing to help. Clark himself testified that he struggled with substance abuse and was being monitored by the Virginia Board of Medicine at the time the offenses occurred. The doctor was being held Tuesday night in the Washington County Jail pending a sentencing hearing, which U.S. District Judge James Jones set for Oct. 16. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens