Jailed Doc Awaits Release on Bond

Jailed Kansas Doctor Awaiting Release On Bond On Friday; Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-04-24. Source.

Brief Comment from me:
Note the Judge did not grant Prosecutor Tanya Treadway’s disturbing request that a “no-contact” condition (gag order) extend to “members of the Pain Relief Network advocacy group, including its leader, Siobhan Reynolds.” So I guess I’m still allowed to publish this, here in America. [see: More Limits Sought for Schneider Bond]
..alex…

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — When Dr. Stephen Schneider finally returns home Friday, the indicted Kansas doctor will step into a house seemingly frozen in time. The family’s Christmas tree is still up; all the presents underneath it remain unopened.

His two daughters - 15-year-old Gina and 16-year-old Zoey - said they planned to keep it that way until their mother, Linda Schneider, is freed from jail as well.

Four months after the Schneiders were arrested on charges of running a “pill mill” linked to 56 deaths, Magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick on Thursday ordered that the doctor be released on bond and other conditions pending his February 2009 trial. A decision on Schneider’s wife’s release will not be made until after the results of her psychological evaluation are in.

“It really won’t be a celebration until mom gets home,” Gina Schneider said.

More than a dozen former patients and family members showed up at the doctor’s bond hearing Thursday in hopes he would be immediately released. But the one-day delay will give court officials time to set up the GPS monitoring that will track Schneider’s movements while he awaits trial.

Gina Schneider said outside the courtroom that the family planned to “make a lot of food - real food” to mark her father’s return. Spaghetti was his favorite meal, Zoey Schneider said.

The girls, who had been staying with their grandparents while their parents were incarcerated, said they will get to sleep in their own beds now that their father is home.

“This is going to take a big load from Linda’s mind,” her sister, Pat Hatcher, told reporters outside the courtroom.

Bostwick slightly modified the release conditions for Stephen Schneider. But he refused to grant a government request to require a security bond rather than the unsecured $325,000 bond. The doctor agreed to forfeit more than $2 million in assets if he does not show up for court dates.

“There have been some serious charges in this matter - and the government has tried to keep you in,” Bostwick told Schneider as he admonished him on the conditions of his release.

The doctor must also notify the court of any action to reinstate his medical license, and he must agree not to apply for another Drug Enforcement Administration registration number that would allow him to prescribe controlled substances.

Other release conditions include electronic monitoring. Schneider would be restricted to home detention except for employment, religious services, attorney visits and other specified activities.

The judge prohibited Schneider from contacting any of the families of the 56 patients cited in the indictment or the families of the three additional patients whose deaths were linked to the clinic after his arrest. He refused to grant the government’s request to keep Schneider, his family and others from contact with all other former patients. [See: More Limits Sought for Schneider's Bond]

The couple was arrested Dec. 19 on a 34-count federal indictment alleging conspiracy, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, health care fraud, illegal money transactions and money laundering.

The federal indictment alleges the Schneiders directly caused four deaths and contributed to the deaths of 11 other patients. In all, the indictment links the clinic to the accidental overdose deaths of 56 patients.

The Schneiders have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

“We are really encouraged at this point. We know we have a strong fight ahead of us. It is a small sense of relief, but he knows he has a long way to go,” his attorney, Lawrence Williamson, told reporters outside the courthouse.

The original criminal complaint against the Schneiders - filed under seal on Nov. 29, 2007 - was unsealed on Wednesday along with the previously sealed motion by the government that asked for its dismissal in favor of prosecuting the indictment returned by the grand jury.

That now-public document - which focused only on allegations relating to the conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and health care fraud allegations - provided a glimpse into the government’s case against the Schneiders.

Rebecca Martin, a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, alleged in an affidavit attached to it that the Schneiders received more than $4.24 million from more than 90 health care benefit programs.

She noted as an example that the Walgreens Pharmacy located near the clinic had to keep a weekly inventory of $10,000 worth of narcotics - two to three times the normal inventory of other Wichita pharmacies - because of the customer load from prescriptions issued by the clinic.

The government contended that from October 2002 through December 2006, the Schneider Medical Clinic billed health care programs for more than 10,400 patients, more than half of whom were pain-management patients.

Still to be worked out among the parties is who will be the custodian of patient records to handle any future subpoenas and patient requests for their medical records.

“This investigation has not ceased - it continues,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Metzger told the court.

[END]

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