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Panama City, Florida, physician
Dr. Freddie Williams has been convicted on all counts of a 94-count
indictment charging him with improperly prescribing opioid pain
relievers. A federal jury reached the verdict after three hours of
deliberation on June 16.
The verdict in the Williams
case marks the second successful prosecution of a Florida panhandle pain
physician. In 2002, Dr. James Graves was convicted of the
Oxycontin-related deaths of patients. He is currently serving a 63-year
sentence while appealing the verdict. Prosecutors in South Florida were
forced to drop similar charges against another physician, Dr. Dennis
Deonarine, earlier this year.
The prosecutions are part of a
nationwide campaign against prescription drug abuse led by the Bush
administration and eagerly embraced by state and federal prosecutors
across the country. According to the American Academy of Physicians and
Surgeons (http://www.aapsonline.org),
dozens of doctors from coast to coast have been prosecuted on similar
charges. More have faced scrutiny and discipline from state medical
boards.
Florida prosecutors portrayed
Dr. Williams as a mercenary who was not interested in treating patients.
Williams was "a drug dealer with a medical license," said Assistant US
Attorney Stephen Kunz during opening arguments. "This is about a doctor
peddling controlled substances, highly addictive opiates, for cash
money."
According to prosecutors,
Williams' office files showed little or no justification for the
prescribing. Williams took the stand in his defense and conceded
prescribing Oxycontin to his two daughters without having complete
medical files on them and even though one of them had a history of using
crack cocaine. But he denied the broader allegations.
According to Williams' defense
lawyer, Armando Garcia, Williams kept poor records and sometimes lost
case files, but that make him unprofessional or irresponsible. Williams
could be "sloppy, lazy, and negligent," Garcia told jurors, but that did
not make him a criminal. Williams had been deceived by some patients who
were addicts and lied to obtain drugs, said Garcia. "Maybe he's just a
little too naive," Garcia said. "Maybe he believed people he shouldn't
have believed."
Now he faces life in prison.
Visit
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/341/freddiewilliams.shtml for
earlier coverage of the Williams case.
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Alexander DeLuca, M.D.