Who is Obstructing Justice in Kansas?

PRN’s Siobhan Reynolds Investigated for Possible Obstruction of Justice – Prosecutor Treadway Gets a Pass; Alexander DeLuca; Addiction, Pain and Public Health website; 2009-04-14. Revised: 2009-04-15: broken link to “Motion to Quash” fixed, and orig date corrected (apologies).

Permalink: http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/grand-jury-investigates-prn/

See also these PDF’s:
Siobhan Reynolds Subpoena to Grand Jury – AUSA T. Treadway; 2009-03-27
Reynolds’ Motion to Quash Subpoena – S. Reynolds, 2009-04-09

I guess you can tell when it is springtime in Kansas… AUSA Tanya Treadway goes off the rails.

Just about this time last year the U.S. Attorney prosecuting Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife attempted to have Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, gagged by the Court. Judge Belot found that the government had not shown a compelling interest in restraining speech. (See: Judge Refuses to Gag Dr. Schneider’s Defense – Hegeman, AP, 2008)

Now Treadway wants to drag Ms. Reynolds before a Grand Jury for, get this, obstruction of justice! If we were not talking about the mockery of the American justice system Bush administration Attorneys General and their minions routinely make in War on Doctors cases like Schneider and Shaygan, this would be really funny. Siobhan Reynolds is obstructing justice? Utter nonsense.

It is Tanya Treadway for the prosecution who, if not obstructing justice in this case, is surely doing everything she can to delay it. She greatly annoyed Judge Belot in January when the Government appealed his ruling limiting the number of deaths the government could charge Schneider with – an appeal the Government will surely lose – but which delayed the case allowing the Treadway to keep Linda Schneider imprisoned for as long as possible. (Read more about AUSA Treadway’s antics in US v. Schneider in this Jan. ’09 article from TalkLeft: Even a Bush Appointee Can Only Take So Much!)

Treadway has good reason to want to delay the case, to make it as expensive and grueling for Dr. Schneider and his wife Linda and his patients and his supporters as possible. Her case is weak, the defense is strong, and I think she is going to lose.

I also think Obama should just accept the resignation of every last Bush appointed AG and AUSA. Talk about a bunch of bad apples… sheesh! I wonder if Eric Holder approves of the War on Doctors Prosecutors’ Cheat Sheet – the basic game-plan his AG’s follow in prosecuting pain docs?

..alex…

WICHITA – A federal grand jury is investigating the head of the Pain Relief Network for her role in the case of a Kansas doctor whose clinic prosecutors have linked to 59 overdose deaths.

Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based group, is a subject in the grand jury investigation of possible obstruction of justice in the case of Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, according to court documents. A subject is a person of interest the prosecution may be considering charging.

Reynolds’ group has supported the Schneiders, who were indicted in December 2007 on 34 counts alleging they unlawfully prescribed painkillers and overbilled for services at their Haysville clinic. The Schneiders maintain that they are innocent.

Reynolds confirmed that she is the subject of an investigation and said a grand jury in Topeka has ordered her to provide documents related to the Schneiders’ case by Wednesday.

Reynolds has filed a motion asking a federal judge to throw out the grand jury’s subpoena and told The Associated Press that she would go to jail rather than turn over the documents.

“I am going to fight it as far as I need to,” she said. “If I were to give in here, lawful advocacy against the United States in court will effectively be brought to an end. So … a lot is at stake here.”

The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

However, in court documents filed last year in the Schneiders’ case, prosecutors portrayed Reynolds as having a “sycophantic or parasitic relationship” with the couple. Prosecutors alleged she was using the case to further her group’s political agenda and her personal interests.

The group supports physicians charged with violations of the Controlled Substances Act, Reynolds said, and has become involved in about 15 such cases nationwide. The group filed a short-lived lawsuit against the Justice Department after the Schneiders’ indictment, but withdrew it a month later.

The Topeka grand jury’s subpoena, of which the AP obtained a copy, ordered Reynolds to provide all correspondence with attorneys, patients, Schneider family members, doctors and others related to the criminal case and malpractice lawsuits against the Schneiders.

In her motion, Reynolds argued that turning over such documents would destroy her work as a political activist and that it violates her First Amendment rights of speech and association.

“This is a direct attempt to intimidate me and silence me,” Reynolds said.

The subpoena also demanded bank and credit card statements showing payments to and from clinic employees, patients, potential witnesses and others.

Former Schneider patient Marti Beatty said a government investigator recently interviewed him about his conversations with the group, which he called “innocent and unexciting.”

“He was trying to get me to say we as a group or she really, in particular had ulterior motives,” Beatty said of the investigator.

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