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My Story |
I was an outstanding internist in Bethesda, Maryland with a large medical practice. My license was suspended 4/16/09 after a highly publicized (unlawful) raid of my office/home resulting in false allegations. Now United States Attorney, Gene Rossi is attempting to indict me on charges of illegal dispensing of CDS. I am in critical and urgent need of legal assistance.
My constitutional rights have clearly been violated Mr. Rossi has already presented evidence to a grand jury which is known to have been obtained as a direct result of an illegal search and seizure and is from incredible witnesses, and he is attempting to prosecute me for charges for which I have already been adjudicated.
I am indigent, on food stamps and home energy assistance, my home is in foreclosure, and I have not worked since my medical license was suspended nearly a year ago. Nevertheless the Court has denied two applications for a public defender (submitted through Mr. Rossi) without an explanation. Mr. Rossi advised me to “beg, borrow, and steal” in order to pay for an attorney.
Clearly Mr. Rossi is taking advantage of my financial situation. His continued malicious prosecution of good physicians needs halted.
The investigation of my medical practice involved the seizure of nearly every patient record (approximately 5000 confidential records). As I do no prescribe medicine for illegitimate purposes, there was no discovery of unwarranted prescriptions. Now the investigation has turned into an invasion of my home and the exploitation of my brother-in-law who has a learning disability and psychological problems. This has torn my family apart.
I graduated from University of Maryland Medical School in 1993, finished my residency at Washington Hospital Center in 1996, was in a group practice from 1996 until 2000, and have been in private practice ever since.
When I opened a private practice, most of my patients from my former practice followed and nearly all my patient’s entire families saw me. I have exceptional diagnostic skills, diagnosing and curing a large number of sick patients (many with Lyme disease) who came to me from other doctors undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. I spent significant time providing outstanding care to each patient and had a great following.
I have never been sued or had a complaint against me until August 2004, when a new drug seeking pregnant patient filed a complaint against me with the medical board. This resulted in an ongoing investigation.
In 2007, the Board requested 6 patient charts including my father’s and wife’s. Their “expert” said that my documentation was extensive but illegible. Because of my hand writing and because I prescribed my wife Ritalin I was charged with unethical conduct and failure to meet standard of care. They placed me on probation pursuant to a “confidential” consent order that I signed because I was in bankruptcy and not adequately represented.
I was required to see a psychiatrist despite having no need for psychiatric treatment. I was prohibited from treating my wife, and I was required to take course in prescribing pain medication which I completed.
Due to the public consent order, I was dropped by my 2 largest insurance companies, Blue Cross and Aetna. This resulted in severe losses while I was in bankruptcy. I was unable to afford health insurance and continued to write my wife’s prescriptions. I took a second course in pain management and began to treat patients with chronic pain who made up less than 5% of my practice. I was referred pain patients by other doctors and hospitals including Suburban and Hopkins. Based on the fact that I was prescribing more pain medication than other internists, the Maryland Board of Physicians, the DEA, and the Montgomery County Police, started an investigation.
3/30/09 the DEA made a operational plan to investigate for Oxycontin and cocaine. On 3/31/09, a search warrant was issued to search my residence, and curtilage specifically for evidence of the crime of possession of Cocaine (NOT Oxycontin). I live above my office with my wife.
Dt. Sean Thielke, MCPD submitted his sworn affidavit in application for the search warrant which included unconfirmed allegations from unnamed pharmacists regarding my prescribing habits (claiming unnamed patients appeared to be drug addicts) and allegations from an unnamed patient claiming on an unknown date unknown patients were “doing heroin” in my waiting room.
The affiant, also described perjured accounts trash pulls in which investigators allegedly discovered cocaine residue in the trash. There was no basis for the alleged trash pulls and the perjured accounts of trash pulls were just a means of obtaining a warrant without probable cause.
4/1/09 the operational plan was executed. The media was notified prior to search and was present. MCPD, DEA prescription drug investigation unit, and Medical Board entered my office and then entered my home without knocking despite protest of my receptionist. Police handcuffed me and made me go into office without shirt or shoes. They refused to show the warrant or give a reason for the search and indicated all investigators were included on the warrant. (The medical board and DEA were not on the warrant and there was no basis for either the DEA prescription drug unit or the Board to participate in the search.
The Board and the DEA conducted an unwarranted investigation based on the DEA’s operational plan to investigate for the prescribing of for Oxycontin. The DEA demanded a list of self pay patients which they did not include on inventory, was unrelated to the crime of the possession of cocaine, and was not on the list of items to be seized. They retained my staff, brother-in-law, wife, and me for custodial interrogation regarding my prescribing habits without reading Miranda rights indicating that this was within the scope of the warrant.
My forty-two year old brother-in-law who is unemployed was staying with my wife and me was interrogated regarding a prescription bottle for methylphenidate (Ritalin) which I prescribed to him. The investigator told my frightened brother-in-law “If you tell us what we want to hear, you will be on the next plane back to Atlanta.”
My brother-in-law claimed to have purchased the medicine for my wife who has ADD, and denied to have taken the medicine or to have a condition, himself, requiring the medicine. He returned to his parent’s house in Atlanta. Subsequently Mr. Rossi and the DEA has befriended him, given him immunity, flied him back and forth from Atlanta, and offered to wine and dine him.
This has resulted in a family rift. My brother-in-law, a former volunteer sheriff, who has always been infatuated with being a law enforcement officer, boasting to his father about his role in the investigation and about his conversations with the investigators. My father-in-law reports to my wife what her brother tells him which results in my wife getting extremely upset at her eighty year old father for not stopping her brother from carrying out his plans of admittedly lying to the grand jury.
They also interrogated patients regarding my prescribing and police told patients that I was not a good doctor and to find a better doctor. (One was assistant attorney general in DC.) Police made fun of my psoriatic skin condition. Police told my wife that she should leave me. Police left with dishes and pens which they called “paraphernalia with residue” and over $1, 800.
11/20/09, I was acquitted on appeal by a jury. The decision was based on the fact that the fact the bowl containing cocaine that was found in my bedroom was a different bowl than was photographed in the original pictures of the house, and the bag of cocaine clearly was not seized from my house.
10/14/09 DEA executed a second search warrant for the crime of prescription drug distribution. The search warrant was granted based on an affidavit containing information illegally obtained from first search. The DEA broke down my door, pointed a gun at my wife’s head and my head, ransacked the house and seize all my patient charts, approximately 5000 confidential patient records without an ascertainable suspicion (not just the 150 self pays included on the warrant of which there was no ascertainable suspicion either) and 3 computers, searched my wife’s wallet and underwear drawer, the kitchen cabinets. An expensive platinum earring was stolen out of my wife’s wallet, a $1400 Samsung TV, and expensive furniture were destroyed, and my computers were never returned causing me to miss deadlines to submit claims. Many charts were never returned.
Besides my brother-in-law, two patients who has been indicted or convicted on federal drug charges testified against me in front of the grand jury. One was prescribed a small amount of Adderall on two occasions (sixty 10 mg tabs) before I refused to see him. Mr. Rossi claims that I do not have records on this patient. The other I only saw twice. The first visit that he came in, he brought records and I continued him on previously prescribed pain medicine. After learning that his former doctor lost his license I referred him to a pain management clinic and gave him enough medicine to sustain him to his next appointment. The other witness was my next door neighbor who was never a patient, is antisemitic, and he has filed criminal charges against me twice and on both occasions I was acquitted and he lied in court (witnesses testified to him shouting antisemitic remarks and stating that he hates me). He has also filed and civil complaints against me against me on several occasions. |
