Mar 8,2008
By: Ron Sylvester
The Wichita Eagle

A federal prosecutor claimed Friday that the nonprofit Pain Relief Network has exploited criminal charges against a local doctor and his wife for its own benefit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway cited recorded jailhouse telephone conversations with Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, in which Pain Relief Network president Siobhan Reynolds asked the Haysville couple to pay for her to lease an apartment in Wichita. They also discussed parlaying the Schneiders' case into a book or movie deal, Treadway said.

Reynolds denied any impropriety.

Schneider, an osteopath, and his wife, who managed his clinic, face 34 criminal charges connected to their practice of prescribing painkillers.

Reynolds founded the New Mexico-based Pain Relief Network, which believes the government oversteps its bounds in its enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act.

Treadway said in a motion filed Friday that she wanted a federal judge to examine the relationship between Reynolds and the Schneiders.

"Ms. Reynolds appears to be using the defendants' criminal case as a springboard for her own designs, which have nothing to do with effective criminal representation for the defendants," Treadway wrote.

Reynolds and Pain Relief Network have successfully supported the defense of two doctors charged with illegally prescribing pain killers in the past two years. Frank Fisher of California and Paul Heberle of Pennsylvania won acquittals at trial and have returned to practicing medicine.

But those were state cases. Reynolds said she's never had to fight the U.S. government, as she has in Kansas.

"The state prosecutors don't have the resources that the federal government does," she said.

Reynolds said her aim is to help the Schneiders.

"I don't have a book deal, I don't have a movie deal and I have not pursued either," Reynolds said Friday.

She said she doesn't see the difference between her group's support of the Schneiders and other advocacy organizations.

"Frankly, I'm dumbfounded," Reynolds said of Treadway's motion. "This is like the U.S. government going after the ACLU for its political work, going after Human Rights Watch. That's the level of interference we're talking about here."

In January, Treadway questioned the Schneiders' right to court-appointed counsel, after revealing that they had nearly $700,000 in assets. Last month, Lawrence Williamson of Kansas City and Uzo Ohaebosim of Wichita entered their appearance as the couple's lawyers.

Treadway said Reynolds hired the pair and is orchestrating their legal tactics, even though she isn't an attorney.

Reynolds said she does give advice, but the lawyers make their own decisions.

"They listen to me and then they go represent their clients," Reynolds said. "I think it's terrible that the government is questioning these lawyers' ethics."

Ohaebosim also has worked with the Pain Relief Network in a civil case the organization tried to file on behalf of former patients of the Haysville clinic.

U.S. Senior Judge Wesley Brown told the group last week that it didn't have legal standing to bring the suit. He denied a request to reopen the clinic and restore Schneider's medical license, which the state suspended in January.

This week, the Pain Relief Network voluntarily dropped its claim.

Treadway asked Brown to take a closer look in the criminal case because of the relationship of Reynolds, the Schneiders and their lawyers.

The Schneiders remain in the Butler County Jail, after U.S. Magistrate Judge Don Bostwick ruled in December that they be held without bond.

In another recorded conversation that Treadway quoted, Reynolds told the Schneiders they "needed to remain in jail to give her 'leverage.' "

"It seems improper from my perspective they would even release that information," Reynolds said. "I don't know under what conditions they're allowed to tape defendants getting advice from political organizations."

Friday, the Schneiders' lawyers filed motions asking Bostwick to reconsider releasing the couple on bond. The attorneys said they'd been working on the motions most of the week and planned to file them Friday, before they knew about the government's latest pleading.

Williamson said the government's motion on conflicts of interest is without merit.

"It is a shame the government is spending so much time and money attacking the Schneiders' counsel instead of preparing the case for trial," he said.