Nov 09, 2005 By: Susan Spencer-Wendel Palm Beach Post (FL)

Prosecutors redoubled efforts to talk with Rush Limbaugh’s medical providers, arguing in court Tuesday that they should be allowed to as part of their doctor-shopping investigation of the conservative talk-show king.

Attorneys for Limbaugh kicked up their aggressive defense too, seeking to hold prosecutors in contempt for allegedly leaking information to the media.

Separately, Roy Black, an attorney for Limbaugh, argued that the confidentiality between a doctor and patient is a privilege not pierced - even by criminal investigators. The law requires a waiver from Limbaugh to speak with his doctors, argued Black, and that was not forthcoming.

“They cannot force Mr. Limbaugh to supply their evidence for them,” Black said.

Limbaugh, 54, of Palm Beach, has not been charged with a crime. He’s been a target of a Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office investigation since his former housekeeper told a story of rampant prescription drug abuse by Limbaugh. Limbaugh has publicly acknowledged an addiction to painkillers.

Assistant State Attorney James Martz argued that he needs to ask basic questions of Limbaugh’s doctors to responsibly investigate if a crime of doctor-shopping has been committed.

“I would be devastated, I kid you not, to go forward with a case against Rush Limbaugh or anybody else in the state of Florida to find out at trial… that we put somebody through a criminal prosecution wrongly or inappropriately,” Martz told Circuit Judge David Crow.

“I have no idea if Mr. Limbaugh has completed the elements of any offense yet… unless we can ask several pertinent questions.”

Crow reserved ruling on Martz’s request, saying he would issue a written order later.

It’s another start-stop in the matter drawn out for nearly two years now, after prosecutors seized Limbaugh’s medical records in late 2003. That set in motion more than 1 1/2 years of appeals, which Limbaugh in the end lost.

Another judge handed some of the seized medical records to prosecutors earlier this year and returned others to Limbaugh.

Crow deferred to that other circuit judge, Thomas H. Barkdull III, to decide the contempt request.