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Doctor's Exam Took Less Than a Minute - Informant Testifies in Pain Clinic Trial
 

 
Michael Perlstein; The Times-Picayune (New Orleans); 2006-07-13. Posted: 2006-07-15.
[Identifier: http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/WPS13-NoPillMill/NoPillMillOneMinExam06.htm]
[Source: http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library-106/1152945372145180.xml?ZZLIBB&coll=1]
 
Related resources:
PAIN RELIEF NETWORK website
 
War on Doctors Academic and Legal archives  ;  Drug War Journalism and Advocacy archives
  
See also:
The New Orleans 'Pill Mill' Case - Venal Pols and Prosecutors Conspire to Ban Pain Management
WAR ON PAIN SUFFERERS #13; compiled by Alexander DeLuca; 2006-07-15
 
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One doctor's examination at a Scherer's pain management clinic lasted 25 seconds. Another visit clocked in at 23 seconds. The shortest lasted 11 seconds.

Each time, the government's confidential informant was prescribed the same potent cocktail of narcotics, even when the doctor expressed some misgivings about whether the patient was actually in pain. Several times, the two-week prescriptions were issued just three days apart as the informant hopscotched among Scherer's three branches in Metairie, Slidell and Gretna.

The jury in the federal trial of Scherer's owner Cherlyn "Cookie" Armstrong and clinic physician Suzette Cullins listened to a full day of testimony from the undercover informant Wednesday, guided by tape recordings of the clinic visits captured through a hidden microphone.

The informant, 25-year-old Nicole Buckeridge, told the jury she began visiting Scherer's in 2001 after she was injured in a car accident. She said she quickly found herself addicted to the clinic's standard treatment of painkiller hydrocodone, muscle relaxant Soma and anti-anxiety medicine Xanax.

As in earlier testimony during the trial, now in its second week, the so-called "holy trinity" of medications was issued to Buckeridge through preprinted prescriptions in assembly-line fashion. At each visit, a clinic assistant can be heard asking Buckeridge to rate her pain level on a scale of 1 to 10. Some of the recordings capture "physical therapy" in which Buckeridge said she reclined in a vibrating chair for a minute or two.

Armstrong, 46, and Cullins, 44, are accused of conspiracy to distribute narcotics without a legitimate medical purpose. Armstrong, a registered nurse, also is charged with money-laundering for allegedly plowing the profits from her $150,000-a-week cash business into numerous bank accounts and real estate acquisitions.

Attorneys for both defendants say the clinics provided a valuable medical service to thousands of patients forced to live with pain. Prosecutors tried to dismantle that defense Wednesday by playing tape recordings in which Buckeridge was issued prescriptions regardless of her condition.

During one visit to the Gretna clinic on Jan. 7, 2005, Cullins began the examination by asking Buckeridge, "How are you?"

"I'm fine," answered Buckeridge as she bent forward and sideways, responding to Cullins' hand motions.

"Have a good day," Cullins said as she signed the preprinted prescription. The entire exchange was timed at 11 seconds.

Three days later, on Jan. 10, Buckeridge was seen by Cullins at the Slidell clinic. Cullins did not perform an examination during the 25-second visit, but can be heard on the tape warning Buckeridge, "You need to back off from me or you need to go see Dr. (Joseph) Guenther when he's available." Nevertheless, Cullins wrote the prescription.

Guenther, another Scherer's doctor, testified earlier in the trial as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to four counts of prescribing narcotics without a legitimate medical purpose. A second Scherer's physician, Dr. Betty DeLoach, pleaded guilty to concealing a felony. DeLoach and Guenther can be heard on several of the undercover recordings.

Under cross-examination by Armstrong's attorney Michael Fawer, Buckeridge said she was recruited as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration after she was arrested on a marijuana charge. She also admitted making $600 a week loading up on excess pain prescriptions and selling the drugs on the black market. As part of her undercover arrangement, the DEA agreed not to prosecute her if she wore a wire to capture evidence at the clinics.

As an informant, Buckeridge said she was paid $300 each time she visited Scherer's. While she was forced to turn over the pills to federal agents, Buckeridge testified that she used some of the DEA payments to get the same drugs from other clinics because she "really was in pain."

"It used to go away a little with the medication," she said of her back and neck pain.

Michael Perlstein can be reached at mperlstein@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316.

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