Pubdate: Tue, 28 Mar 2006
Source: Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Copyright: 2006 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Note: apparent 150 word limit on LTEs
Author: Kenneth A. Gailliard
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

JUDGE CLIPS JAIL TIME FOR MB DRUG DOCTORS SUN NEWS

A federal judge on Monday slashed prison sentences for three former
doctors from a now-closed Myrtle Beach pain clinic where federal
prosecutors say drugs were illegally prescribed.

In a federal courtroom in Florence, U.S. District Judge Weston Houck
changed Michael Jackson's sentence to 30 months from 292, and Deborah
Bordeaux's and Ricardo Alerre's to 24 months from 97 and 235,
respectively, prosecutors said.

Monday's resentencing hearing was scheduled after a federal appeals
court ruled in 2005 that Houck, who first sentenced the three in 2004,
could have used more discretion in those sentences.

The trio are the only doctors from the former Comprehensive Care and
Pain Management Center, which operated in Myrtle Beach between 1997
and 2001, who have yet to begin serving prison sentences.

"These three doctors just got lucky," said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Bill Day, who prosecuted the doctors.

The three had appeals pending when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
federal judges, when sentencing, could stray from the strict federal
sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors said that in passing the sentence Monday, Houck noted that
Alerre, Jackson and Bordeaux, as doctors, were different from most
drug dealers, and because they no longer have medical licenses, they
are no threat to society.

"If you're going to be sentenced, this is an excellent sentence," said
Lionel Lofton, a Charleston lawyer who represented Alerre, the senior
of the three doctors at 79 years old.

He said 191/2 years would have amounted to "a death sentence" for his
client, who is now retired. "It was a major victory."

Lawyers for the doctors said they do not intend to appeal the
sentences.

Day, who objected to the new sentences, said federal authorities
haven't decided whether to appeal.

Eli Stutsman, an appellate lawyer who represented all three doctors on
appeal, said while he agrees with Monday's sentences, he plans to ask
the U.S. Supreme Court to review the doctors' conviction, which was
upheld in 2005 by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Meanwhile, the doctors await notice from federal authorities of the
dates they must report to prison. Those dates were uncertain Monday.

In 2002, a federal grand jury indicted eight doctors, including one
who committed suicide before he could go to trial, on charges related
to the illegal distribution of the potent pain killer OxyContin and
other narcotics.

Most of the former doctors began serving sentences soon after their
2004 convictions, including Michael Woodward, the clinic's owner, who
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors said the Myrtle Beach clinic had become widely
known in South Carolina and in other states as a place where narcotics
could be obtained easily.

Authorities said nearly $6 million went through the clinic during the
time it operated.

Shutting down the clinic hasn't stopped the distribution of OxyContin
in South Carolina, said Jon Ozaluk, assistant special agent in charge
of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in South Carolina, but he said
Myrtle Beach is no longer a central location for distribution of the
drug.

"We still have a demand for illegal OxyContin in the state, but by
dismantling that group of physicians we don't see people from across
the state and other states going there anymore," he said.

Shutting down the pain clinic has forced addicts to seek narcotics in
new places, Ozaluk said.

"Unfortunately it's a routine occurrence to have investigations of
those types of cases [illegal narcotics distribution] open in our
office because of the demand of the pills," Ozaluk said.

Staff writer Paul Nelson contributed to this report.
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