AG Tom Corbett Bags Another Dangerous Doc
From Those Wonderful People Who Brought You the ‘Heberle Perp Poster’…; Alex DeLuca; War on Doctors/Pain Crisis; Pain Relief Network; 2007-06-26.
From a Pennsylvania county infamous for the reckless mis-prosecutions of physicians, Erie County, comes this news item: “West Shore Doctor [Zampogna], Husband Face Drug Charges” – F. Cozzoli; The Patriot News; 2007-06-25.
[START: news item QUOTE]
“A West Shore dermatologist and her husband were arrested today on charges that she wrote prescriptions for the painkiller Hydrocodone which she then gave to her husband for their own personal use, the state attorney general’s office said. Dr. Jennifer C. Zampogna… and her husband, Christopher, were arraigned before District Judge Charles A. Clement Jr. Dr. Zampogna, 34, is charged with one count each of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation or fraud, refusal or failure to keep required records, dispensing or prescribing to a drug-dependent person, prescribing outside accepted treatment principles and willful dispensing of a controlled substance without proper labeling.”
“Christopher Zampogna, also 34, is charged with one count each of possession of a controlled substance and obtaining a substance by misrepresentation or fraud. The couple [were released on bail and] both had to forfeit their passports and seek drug and alcohol evaluations and treatment and comply with the recommendations, court documents state.”
[END: news item QUOTE]
U.S. Attorney Corbett is a Public Health Wrecking Machine
In 2005, Corbett took out pain doctor David Klees, and then, after the State of PA begged Dr. Paul Heberle to take Dr. Klees’ abandoned patients, Corbett and his thugs went after Dr. Heberle.
That turned out to be a big mistake. Corbett got his ass kicked soundly by a very strong man and excellent physician, Dr. Paul Heberle, assisted by excellent and aggressive lawyers and the Pain Relief Network.
Heberle Won, but the Damage was Done
Pain patients have been abandoned in droves in Erie; AG Corbett’s office is a public health wrecking machine. And that machine started it’s attack on Heberle with this PR stunt, an outrageously blatant attempt at polluting the jury pool, the infamous Heberle press conference featuring the vicious and unfair Heberle Perp Poster (PDF – suitable for framing)
AND CORBETT LOST HEBERLE SPECTACULARLY! [Read all about it: Erie, 2006: Dr. Klees Imprisoned, Dr. Heberle Exonerated, Pain Patients Abandoned]
For those of you not overly familiar with drug war prosecutions of physicians, let me assure you the complete exoneration of the doctor at trial is vanishingly rare – it is really difficult to lose these cases if you’re the prosecution. [You can review a bunch of them: War on Pain Sufferers collection] Corbett and his team seemed dazed and confused by Heberle’s aggressive and well-prepared defense lawyers, expert consultation from the Pain Relief Network, and Dr. Heberle’s poise and presence on the witness stand. [see: Szalavitz: "The Doctor Wasn't Cruel Enough"; Reason; 2006-06-02]
One would have thought we’d seen how low Attorney General Tom Corbett could go, but apparently not. This Zampogna case is embarrassing – a pathetic joke. Here is the MAIN charge, the best they got:
Court documents state that from February 2005 through February 2007, Dr. Zampogna obtained quantities of hydrocodone, a generic form of Vicodin, by writing prescriptions in the names of several family members without their knowledge or consent. The prescriptions were filled at pharmacies throughout Cumberland County, authorities said. Dr. Zampogna picked up each prescription and paid for most of them in cash, the documents state.After that, the charges get too silly to bother with here. He’s kidding, right? The good people of PA are going to pony up for a hideously expensive criminal investigation and trial to convict a doctor of the “drug crime” of diverting low potency opioids to, ahhh, herself? Oh, this is too rich, this is beautiful. I am making a personal plea right now to the Zampogna’s to please fight this and make them take you to trial; this could be absolutely priceless political theatre. To AG Corbett and his crew, I can only say this: “Go for it, Tom; Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!”
Back to the ‘initial media smear’ of Dr. Z. for just a moment. Note that they aren’t crowing about ‘thousands and thousands of pills’ so I’m guessing the amounts are not that staggering, which is why they aren’t even going to bother to accuse her of dealing to schoolchildren. And we don’t yet have any weeping patients with tales of medical degradation at the hands of evil-doer Dr. Zampogna. So I’m guessing the prosecution doesn’t have them (not that they won’t be coming out of the woodwork, soon enough, smelling “malpractice” fortunes). In fact, there is no intimation that she was in any sense a ‘bad doctor.’ So I’m guessing she wasn’t. Along these lines, here is a Comment left in response to the article I quote at the beginning of this piece:
Posted by rezident1 on 06/25/07 at 8:08PMOf course the reporter couldn’t be bothered to look up Dr. Zampogna’s medical credentials or report on what Dr. Z’s standing has been in the medical community. Nor are the readers reminded of Corbett’s history of going after the (usually) easy prey – doctors like Klees and Heberle. Reporters in the initial media smear phase of a doctor prosecution inevitably merely parrot the law enforcement line. [Ex: Dr. Volkman Speaks Against DEA in April - Get's Indicted in May] That’s why we call it drug war Trash Journalism.
WOW, after hearing of this I immediately contacted the many personal referrals I made to Advanced Derm. All of the comments were unanimous.. Dr. Zampogna is the BEST! She has provided me with nothing but excellent care and attention. During my continual visits I never witnessed her to be acting suspicious. Dr. Zampogna was always so upbeat and friendly… I feel that the reason this has taken such precedence is because of her status. We SUPPORT you Dr. Zampogna and all of our prayers our with you and your family. Be STRONG
And, of course, I cannot vouch for the Commenter quoted above, nor have I investigated Dr. Z’s medical background, nor will I (unless she asks me too). I am simply reminding us all that this is an ‘initial media smear’ of the type always mounted in drug war doctor cases. And that sometimes these get tragically out of hand. [Ex: Utah / Feds Boldly Move Toward Solution to Addiction]
For now, I am happy to sit back and just watch this insanity unfold.
[END]
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I think there should be more uptight rules to regulate such kind of drugs.
Are you aware of the recent events in this case? The AG continues to prosecute even after Judge Keven Hess and an outside rehab specialist, Mr. Skipper, both make recommendations for Dr. Z to continue her rehabilitation. The AG still pushes to destroy her practice.
The news media is still reporting. Can you help at this 11th hour desctructive AG decision?
I simply think that Dr. Zampogna is an amazing doctor, who made a mistake, but has been through enough. This feels like a witch-hunt and I think it's shocking that other doctors in this area have been prosecuted for the same thing, but in a totally different way. What a travesty if this practice is closed…her patients LOVE her and she is an exceptional surgeon. I am praying that a miracle will happen at the next court date. Many people in this area need her!
I saw this initial story on Facebook, thinking it a scam. You have got to be kidding me – hydrocodone? That's what is taken as a psychological placebo so people think they're getting something more powerful than aspirin!
Check out the Facebook page now. It has more supporters (currently 632), than Tom Corbett's Facebook page (currently 536). This guy is a clown, and he is is quickly alienating the bulk of his constituency, which resides in 3 (primarily Republican) counties in PA. I personally hope he goes down in flames. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12047395236...
I want to apologize to what has become a veritable community of support for Dr. Z that I have been unable to give this important case the attention it deserves. But I am very heartened by above comments (which I was very slow to 'approve' – sorry about that too), and by the Facebook support page mentioned.
When I wrote this blog post and commented on the Zampogna case in other discussions of Corbett in 2007 and 2008, I knew nothing about Dr. Z other than what I read in Trash Journalism articles. And of course the case had not further unfolded, and you good people had not coalesced into the support movement you have become.
Now I know what I then suspected: There. Was. No. Crime. Zampogna is not a criminal and the case against her a sham from the start. In the looking glass world of drug war doctor prosecutions this is par.
I am glad people are outraged by Corbett's behavior in the Zampogna case. But this is far from his worst atrocity – and when he has gone after pain treating physicians, most notably Klees and Heberle, the consequences on innocent patients were MASSIVE. He is directly responsible for the abrupt medical abandonment of droves of pain patients, very many of whom (especially after the Heberle debacle) were unable to find physicians willing to risk coming into Corbett's cross-hairs.
Corbett's prosecution of Dr. Zampogna is wrong on a whole lot of levels, and she has my complete support. But I hope people take this opportunity to look under this scab, so to speak. Literally a CENTURY of prejudice, propaganda about the 'drug menace,' loss of liberty and privacy rights, manipulation and suppression of medical research, relentless harassment of physicians and consequent grotesque and worsening distortion of medical ethics and practices, logarithmic growth of the 'justice'/cop/prison industrial complex, of the Big Lie of prohibition… a CENTURY of seriously tragic history mostly in your American name and on your American dollars made the Zampogna charade possible.
So I entirely support Dr. Zampogna and strongly believe DA Corbett be brought to account by the good people of PA who are ultimately responsible for this very dangerously irresponsible man. But I hope people will want to understand the background – the ongoing nightmare travesty of the pain crisis and the drug war that underlie the injustice being visited on Dr. Z.
It's happening all over, people, all the time. Read Wichita Witch Hunt – DOJ Wages War on Pain Relief in the current Forbes.
Then, to whet your appetite for history, read Rufus King's 1953 classic, The Narcotics Bureau and the Harrison Act: Jailing the Healers and the Sick
Read some of the stuff in the "Background Reading" box in the right sidebar. Whatever.
Or, if you'd rather watch videos, see "The Chilling Effect" and other great stuff on PRN: <a href="http://painreliefnetwork.org/media/” target=”_blank”>http://painreliefnetwork.org/media/ or check out War on Docs/Pain Crisis – YouTube. Whatever.
But please, Let the Pain In. This is our history determining our lives. It's important.
..alex…