Trial Begins for Suspended Doctor Merrill
Jan 11, 2006
By: Melissa Nelson
Orlando Sentinel (FL)
A Florida Panhandle doctor’s zeal for prescribing highly addictive pain killers such as OxyContin caused six of his patients to overdose and die, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.
But Dr. Thomas G. Merrill’s lawyers said his mistake was in placing too much trust in patients who exaggerated their pain to obtain prescriptions.
“The evidence will show that this may, may, make a good malpractice case, but not a criminal charge,” Appleman told jurors.
Merrill, 70, faces a 100-count indictment including charges of illegally dispensing controlled substances, defrauding health care benefits and distributing controlled substances resulting in death. He faces life in prison if convicted as charged.
Prosecutor Stephen Kunz said Merrill’s practice at the Magnolia Clinic in Apalachicola became a destination for drug seekers throughout Florida.
“The defendant was in essence a drug dealer with an osteopathic license,” Kunz said. “He prescribed in quantities and doses that would allow patients to abuse or misuse and in some cases caused their deaths. His patients came from near and far. This is about a physician peddling highly addictive substances in exchange for money.”
Merrill, a former military doctor stationed for at time at Tyndall Air Force Base, had worked at the Apalachicola clinic since 1994. The state suspended his license in May 2004 after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began its investigation in early 2003. A federal grand jury indicted him in August.
Merrill wrote 33,000 prescriptions from January 2001 to May 2004 and 81 percent of those were for controlled substances, Kunz said.
“The testimony will show that this is a phenomenal figure,” he said.
Kunz said numerous pharmacists and pharmacy employees will testify about their concerns for Kunz’s patients and how calls to his office questioning his prescriptions were ignored. Instead, he said, Merrill instructed patients to go to pharmacies where they would be less likely to be questioned.
Merrill also ignored warnings from a hospital emergency room about a patient who had overdosed on prescription and illegal drugs, continuing to prescribe pain killers, which the woman later used when she overdosed and died, Kunz said.
But Appleman said there was no way Merrill could have foreseen the deaths of patients who did not follow proper dosing instructions.
“One woman told everyone in her family she was going to commit suicide and she did, and the government wants to hold Dr. Merrill responsible for her death,” Appleman said.
He told jurors Merrill wanted to help the many laborers in what he called one of the poorest areas of Florida.
“There are 10,000 people in Apalachicola, many of them harvest oysters for a living, they use their muscles for a living, they need those muscles in their backs to earn a living,” Appleman said.
“Dr. Merrill had a plan to ease their pain for the short term, for the long term, to help them sleep, to ease their depression so that they could earn a living,” Appleman said.
Among the 100 federal charges against him, Merrill faces four counts of distributing controlled substances resulting in death and two counts of committing health care fraud, which are linked to patient deaths. He faces a minimum of 20 years in prison for each count of distributing a controlled substance resulting in death.
His trial is expected to last a month.
