Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Copyright: 2004 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159 Author: Peter Franceschina, Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/rush+limbaugh Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/doctor+shopping LIMBAUGH SEIZES ON MIAMI-DADE COURT RULING Rush Limbaugh took a moment Thursday on his radio show to talk about a Miami-Dade County man's murder conviction overturned this week by an appeals court that ruled police illegally seized his medical records. Limbaugh, 53, a Palm Beach resident, is locked in a battle with Palm Beach County prosecutors over their seizure of his medical records from four doctors late last year. Limbaugh is under investigation for possible violations of the state's "doctor shopping" law that makes it illegal to obtain overlapping prescriptions secretly from more than one doctor. He has not been charged, and Limbaugh's battle over his medical records is now with the Fourth District Court of Appeals in West Palm Beach. He is appealing a judge's ruling that allowed prosecutors to seize the records with search warrants rather than following a procedure in state law that requires that patients be notified before the records are subpoenaed, so the issue can be contested in court. Limbaugh's Miami attorney Roy Black filed a notice with the appeals court Thursday alerting the judges that their counterparts in Miami- Dade issued an opinion Wednesday touching on some of the issues raised in Limbaugh's appeal. In the Miami-Dade case, Timothy Sneed was convicted of second-degree murder after a struggle with a man who pulled a gun. Both men were shot, the other man fatally. The next day, Sneed went to a hospital, and a police detective obtained his medical records without a subpoena or a search warrant. The detective later said he was not aware of the notification requirement. The Miami-Dade appeals court ruled that the detective illegally obtained Sneed's records, so the court overturned Sneed's conviction and ruled prosecutors can't use the records if they retry Sneed. "The court, in this case -- we're not talking something as innocuous and unprovable and silly as doctor shopping -- the Third District Court reversed a second-degree murder conviction on this," Limbaugh said. "They reversed a second-degree murder conviction and a 35-year prison sentence because of the illegal seizure and failure to follow the statute on securing these medical records done by the cop, and they ordered a retrial without the records available to the state attorney, which is exactly what we have demanded and suggested in our brief." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin