Pubdate: Tue, 29 Apr 2003
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Lee Mueller, Eastern Kentucky Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

DOCTOR CONVICTED ON SEVEN DRUG COUNTS

Santos Could Get 16 Years; Procter Takes Plea Bargain

GREENUP -A Greenup County jury recommended a 16-year prison sentence for 
Dr. Rodolfo Santos yesterday -- another stiff sentence for another 
so-called "dirty doctor."

The jury deliberated four hours before convicting Santos, 65, on seven 
counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances at a South Shore 
clinic last year.

Earlier yesterday, the clinic's owner, Dr. David H. Procter, 52, pleaded 
guilty in U.S. District Court in Ashland to conspiring with two former 
office managers to illegally prescribe controlled substances. Prosecutors 
recommended a 121-month sentence and a $250,000 fine for Procter.

Santos was the last of four former Procter doctors to either be convicted 
or plead guilty to prescription-drug charges. Sentences have reached as 
high as 20 years.

Defense attorney Michael Curtis said he expected the sentences to send a 
"chill" through the local medical community, causing local doctors to 
withhold pain pills from patients who need them. Clifford R. Duvall, 
commonwealth attorney for Greenup and Lewis counties, disagreed.

The verdicts won't affect good doctors, he said, but "I get this settling 
feeling that it will be a while now before the rest of the state looks at 
Greenup County as the hydrocodone capital of the Bluegrass again."

Procter, 52, a Canadian who moved to South Shore in 1977, testified on 
Friday against Santos after reaching a plea agreement with federal 
prosecutors. He also is expected to testify in the trial of his alleged 
co-conspirators, Nancy Jane Sadler, 39, of West Portsmouth, Ohio, and Mary 
Katherine Dials, 36, of Stout, Ohio. That trial is scheduled to begin today.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Molloy said Procter's help could reduce his 
prison term, according to federal sentencing guidelines, to 90 months, or 
71/2 years.

Santos, 65, of Myersdale, Pa., was one of the last of 16 doctors hired to 
work temporarily at Procter's Plaza Healthcare after November 1998, when 
Procter said he suffered a head injury in a car wreck that left him unable 
to treat patients.

In 1999, the state medical board accused Procter of having sexual contact 
with three women patients. He denied the allegations, but surrendered his 
license.

Three doctors -- Dr. Steven Snyder, Dr. Frederick Cohn and Dr. Fortune 
Williams -- were indicted after leaving Procter's clinic, but Santos was 
arrested on June 10 last year while driving to work in South Shore.

After yesterday's verdict, Santos' 14-year-old son, Anthony, left the 
courtroom in tears followed by his mother, Donna.

Larry Bailey, 60, of Grayson, watched as they passed. His son, Paul Bailey, 
35, was listed by investigators as one of seven people who might have died 
of a drug-overdose after visiting Santos. The elder Bailey did not 
celebrate the verdict.

"I feel sorry for his family," said Bailey, who attended every minute of 
the eight-day trial. "They didn't deserve this. But my family didn't 
deserve it, either."

Jury already convinced

State officials estimated that Santos wrote prescriptions for almost three 
million units of controlled substances in 13 months at the clinic, 
including 11,200 prescriptions for Lorcet, a popular pain-killer.

Santos declined comment, but Curtis described his client as upset. "But you 
look at the total number of prescriptions -- especially Lorcet; 11,000 
prescriptions in a year -- that was probably something he couldn't 
overcome, but they didn't max him out, either."

The maximum sentence for seven Class D felonies would have been 35 years, 
he said. Santos will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his 
sentence.

Judge Lewis Nicholls allowed Santos to remain free on a $20,000 cash bond 
and scheduled formal sentencing for May 22.

Jury foreman Carolyn Massie said the amount of Lorcet that Santos 
prescribed and testimony that he gave paid informant Mary Reed a cocktail 
of prescription drugs without any medical records last April helped 
persuade the jury.

She said Procter's appearance on Friday -- in which he contradicted much of 
Santos' testimony -- was not important to the jury.

"I think it benefitted him more than it did us," she said, referring to 
Procter's plea agreement.

'That sound like a drug dealer?'

In a statement to federal prosecutors on April 13, Procter outlined the 
roles of Sadler and Dials at the South Shore clinic while admitting he 
traded pills for sex to two female patients.

He said Sadler and Dials contacted a stream of doctors seeking temporary 
assignments, who came through his office.

Procter said Sadler told him Dr. Steven Snyder of Louisville left signed 
prescription pads that she filled out so patients could get prescriptions 
without seeing a doctor.

Sadler then "just basically" sold the prescription to the patient, he said.

Another doctor, Frederick Cohn of Albuquerque, N.M., who also has pleaded 
guilty in federal court, also wrote prescriptions, but fell out with 
Procter, he said.

"He wanted more money," Procter said. "He wanted this, he wanted different 
perks and I did not buy out his contract, so he went out on his own."

Procter said Sadler, who was the clinic's office manager after the 1998 car 
wreck, became his "gatekeeper" who accepted addicts as patients. "She 
knew," Procter said.

He said Dials, who had started working for him in about 1996, "knew that I 
wanted patients in there that would be easy to evaluate, easy to document, 
and if they were pain-seeking, medication-type patients, then we knew that 
once we started treating them, they would keep coming back."

In his closing statement yesterday, Curtis tried to show that while Procter 
and his staff were urging his client to see more patients, Santos made some 
patients -- including Reed -- wait four or five hours while he treated 
other patients.

"Does that sound like a drug dealer?" Curtis asked.

Duvall, meanwhile, conceded that in secretly recorded tapes, Santos 
appeared to spend time examining Reed before giving her the usual drug 
"cocktail" of Lorcet 10, Xanax and Soma. It was because Santos knew the 
clinic was under investigation, Duvall said.

"I submit to you that Dr. Santos knows how to pretend to practice 
medicine," he said.

Santos still faces a separate 11-count indictment issued last November. No 
trial date has been set for those charges.
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