Pubdate: Wed, 11 June 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: HOLLY BECKA, and TANYA EISERER

AGENCIES RAID DALLAS DOCTOR'S OFFICE

Court Records Link S. Dallas Practice To 11 Overdose Deaths

Investigators raided the office, bank and home Tuesday of a doctor whose 
South Dallas practice is linked in court records to the deaths of 11 
patients. In an affidavit filed Tuesday, Dr. Daniel Maynard, 57, is 
described by an investigator as prescribing narcotics without a valid 
medical purpose and defrauding the state Medicare and Medicaid systems by 
charging for medical services that were never performed.

Dr. Maynard, a doctor of osteopathy and a Texas general practitioner since 
1973, has not been arrested and could not be reached for comment. A woman 
who came to the window of his Lakewood neighborhood home declined to 
comment Tuesday. District Attorney Bill Hill said his office and five other 
local and federal agencies began investigating Dr. Maynard after complaints 
by family members of patients who died from drug overdoses.

"We're certainly concerned about that many deaths that were the result of 
drug overdoses and having been patients of one particular doctor," Mr. Hill 
said. "We want to review the patient files and see if in fact there was any 
causation between those deaths and the medications Dr. Maynard was 
prescribing."

He said the investigation may last months and has no timeline. He can 
continue practicing, though the Drug Enforcement Administration is 
investigating whether to pull his license to prescribe narcotics. Details 
of the investigation became public Tuesday when officials served a warrant 
to search his clinic and other properties.

If charges are filed, it would be one of the largest cases of its kind in 
the South, officials said. Doctors in Texas, Florida, Georgia and New 
Mexico have faced criminal charges ­ ranging from murder to manslaughter ­ 
in the overdose deaths of a handful of patients, but none has been linked 
to as many as 11 deaths.

The alleged victims ranged in age from 29 to 62, and their deaths occurred 
during the last three years, according to court records. Their autopsies 
listed various causes of death, including drug overdoses, toxic effects of 
mixed drugs and congestive heart failure.

A Parkland hospital emergency room doctor who reviewed two of the overdose 
deaths told investigators that the volume and combination of drugs 
prescribed would in time be lethal to a patient.

Records show that among Texas doctors in 2002, Dr. Maynard wrote the most 
prescriptions for the sedative diazepam and the second-most prescriptions 
for Tylenol with codeine. That year, he wrote 54,748 prescriptions, 
according to the records.

Mr. Hill said he believed that the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners 
was conducting its own investigation of Dr. Maynard. An official with the 
board would not confirm that or say whether Dr. Maynard was the subject of 
past complaints by patients.

"We have not taken any disciplinary action against Dr. Maynard," said Jill 
Wiggins, public information officer for the board. "Whether or not he's had 
complaints and investigations in the past is confidential by statute." 
Osteopaths go through much the same training as other doctors and practice 
a whole-person approach to medicine, according to the American Osteopathic 
Association. They also receive extra training in the body's interconnected 
system of nerves, muscles and bones and use their hands to diagnose injury 
and illness, according to the association.

News of Tuesday's raid at Dr. Maynard's office on Martin Luther King Jr. 
Boulevard elated the husband of one alleged victim.

"It'll save a lot of people's lives," Chris Burton said of the raid. "It 
could have saved my wife's life."

Mr. Burton said his wife, Dolores Burton, began seeing Dr. Maynard in 1992 
because of chronic back pain related to a 1989 on-the-job accident. "A 
friend of hers had told her about him," Mr. Burton said. "She [the friend] 
told her he'd give her anything she wanted, whatever she asked for. And he 
did. He wouldn't so much as put a stethoscope to her." Dr. Maynard had 
prescribed Mrs. Burton a number of medications, including the painkiller 
Percodan; Valium, an anti-anxiety drug; the antidepressant Trazedone; and 
the antidepressant Zoloft, Mr. Burton said. The doctor prescribed the 
painkiller Hydrocodone for seven years then switched her to Percodan 
because of liver concerns, Mr. Burton said. "He kept supplying her the 
medicine every month," he said. "Sometimes she wouldn't even have to go in. 
He'd just call it in."

He said his wife's physical condition drastically deteriorated over the 
last decade. He said his wife suffered 27 strokes in the 18 months before 
her Jan. 3 death.

"She just went downhill from stroke after stroke," Mr. Burton said. "She 
died at home in my arms after 22 years" of marriage, he said, his voice 
cracking. The families of other alleged victims could not be reached 
Tuesday for comment. Investigators also raided a nearby pharmacy that 
issued many of the doctor's prescriptions. Dr. Maynard does not own the 
pharmacy but does own the building and the lot, officials and records say.

Court records say former and current employees told investigators that the 
clinic took no appointments ­ patients were seen on a first-come, 
first-served basis. A former employee said in records that some patients 
slept outside the clinic "in order to be able to sign in on the sign-in 
sheet first."

She told investigators, according to court documents, "It was very scary 
because the people would become violent. Everyone wanted to sign in first, 
and most of them were high on drugs."

Mr. Burton, 53, said Dr. Maynard's clinic paid for off-duty police officers 
to keep patients from walking out of the nearby pharmacy and selling their 
prescription drugs to others.

Current and former employees echoed Mr. Burton's observations. They told 
investigators that off-duty officers provided protection and that the 
clinic saw up to 200 patients per day, records say.

Forty to 50 patients were inside Dr. Maynard's office when dozens of 
law-enforcement officers stormed the brick and stucco building about 8:30 
a.m. Tuesday.

Patients said Dr. Maynard was not present when investigators ­ from the 
attorney general's office, Dallas Police Department, DEA, district 
attorney's office, FBI and Health and Human Services' office of inspector 
general ­ arrived.

Officers used plastic handcuffs to restrain people, including patients 
wearing oxygen masks. Officers checked them for outstanding arrest warrants 
before releasing them, several patients said. Authorities also brought a 
large truck to the scene for evidence removal.

Some patients said law officers asked them whether Dr. Maynard gave them 
more medication than they asked for. They said they told the officers he 
did not. "I just get Valium for bad nerves," said Delicha Johnson, a 
patient who was briefly detained. "Dr. Maynard is a very good doctor. Why 
would police come up into a doctor's office like that?"

Cordell Cornell, another patient who was briefly held, said he sees Dr. 
Maynard because he has chronic back problems.

"I just know he's a good doctor," he said. Tuesday evening, police were 
still at the clinic, across the street from the Martin Luther King Jr. 
Center and down the street from James Madison High School. Officials said 
it was unclear whether clinic business would be conducted as normal Wednesday.

"Unless the state does something immediately, yes, he could" continue to 
prescribe medications, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Sherri Strange. "Of 
course, it concerns us."

Doctors allowed to prescribe certain types of medicines, including 
narcotics, must be licensed through the DEA.

Agent Strange said the DEA could pull Dr. Maynard's license to prescribe 
narcotics, an action that would not require court action. She said DEA 
investigators had not yet reviewed what was seized from Dr. Maynard's 
office. Mr. Hill said he does not want the raid to hamper doctors who 
legitimately prescribe narcotics.

"We are not casting a blanket indictment on the medical profession because 
there certainly are legitimate reasons to prescribe narcotics," he said. "I 
certainly don't want this to have a chilling effect on physicians with 
patients who have a legitimate need for those types of narcotics because of 
severe chronic pain."

Staff writers Todd Bensman, Ian McCann, Terri Langford and Steve McGonigle 
contributed to this report.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart