Sep 14, 2006 By: Jason Cato Pittsburg Tribune (PA)

A Plum doctor accused of trading powerful painkillers for sex but who was later convicted of providing prescriptions outside normal medical standards has filed a second request for a new trial.

Dr. Bernard Rottschaefer, 63, claims to have new evidence that proves the former patients who testified against him during his 2003 trial were lying. Rottschaefer was convicted of 153 counts of illegally prescribing prescription painkillers, such as OxyContin, to five drug-addicted female patients.

He was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison, but has remained free pending the outcome of his first appeal, which is now filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Following his criminal trial, the five complaining witnesses each sued Rottschaefer for malpractice. During the trial, all five told jurors that they were drug addicts who were prescribed painkillers for no medical reason. Four of the five women testified that Rottschaefer wrote the prescriptions after they performed oral sex.

Depositions provided by the former patients in their civil suit prove Rottschaefer was treating the women for legitimate medical reasons, the doctor’s lawyers claim.

They say two witnesses — Jennifer Riggle and Amy Vivio — lied under oath during trial that they were not receiving leniency from the government in other criminal cases in exchange for their testimony against Rottschaefer. His lawyers say a new trial is warranted because prosecutors knowingly allowed the witnesses to give false testimony.

Federal prosecutors focused their case on trying to show that Rottschaefer broke the law by knowingly prescribing controlled substances outside the course of normal medical treatment. They believe the women traded sex for drugs, but said it was not necessary to prove motive in order to get a conviction.

More than a year after the trial, Rottschaefer’s lawyers were given 183 letters written by Riggle to her then-boyfriend, who was in jail. In the letters, Riggle repeatedly wrote that she never had sex with Rottschaefer and was lying in order to curry favor with prosecutors in hopes of getting reduced or no jail time for drug charges.