Schneiders Fate in the Hands of the Jury

The verdict could come down very soon.

Images of tephen and Linda Schneider before and after being charged.

(WICHITA, Kansas) - After 8 weeks of emotional testimony, the pill mill trial of former doctor Stephen Schneider and his nurse wife, Linda Schneider has been handed over to the jury for deliberation beginning Wednesday morning.

Marianne Skolek

Schneider has been referred to as the "Candy Man" and his former clinic as the "Burger King for pain pill addicts" with reports of overdosing and deaths of patients.

The charges against the Schneiders were read and are broken down as Count 1 - conspiracy to commit a crime. (The most serious of the charges). Counts 2 - 6 - the illegal prescriptions of drugs. Counts 7 - 17 - health care fraud, including billing government insurance for services not provided or over-charging for treatments. Counts 18 - 34 - money laundering -- basically taking the money from health care fraud for personal gain as well as financial transactions of more than $10,000, such as putting it in the bank.

The day began in Federal Court with the prosecution calling its last witness, Joe D. Davison, MD a board certified family practice physician in Wichita. Dr. Davison currently serves as President of the Kansas Medical Society.

When the Schneider Clinic closed in 2008, Dr. Davison's practice began seeing many of the Clinic's displaced patients. Davison testified that patients now are receiving substantially less medications than they did at the Schneider Clinic according to their records

The prosecution began their closing argument with Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway addressing the jurors.

Highlights of Treadway's remarks in court were --

"If you find they both broke the law, you have to find the conspiracy because they were working together."

" If you're not guilty of anything, why try to hide the money through convoluted transactions?"

"If this was a bank robbery, the explosive dye hidden in the money would be all over the defendants."

"As multiple witnesses testified, there were many F-words in these records -- they were false, forged and for show."

"They also created records out of thin air."

"The lack of documentation is not laziness -- It's the result of a practice permeated by fraud."

"And they even billed for services when they were out of town --"at their house in Mexico."

"For this practice, they received $4.2 million from insurance claims and $3 million from cash patients."

Treadway then meticulously described how each patient treated at the Schneider Clinic died -- all dying within days of their last visit to the clinic. Patients in their 20's, 30's and 40's. They showed up early for prescriptions. Failed drug screens and still received drugs. The prosecutor asked that the jury look at the 176 overdoses and the 68 deaths. She referred to the defendants running a pill mill and not a medical practice.

Defense Attorney for Stephen Schneider, Lawrence Williamson addressed the jurors. Highlights of his comments were --

"If you believe he was trying, let him go home to his daughters, his family. Let this nightmare be over."

"Ladies and gentlemen, he was acting as a doctor. He never gave anyone a pill he thought would hurt someone."

"This is not a drug dealer. This is not a fraudulent person. This is a man who cared about his patients."

"You see what happens when government takes over health care, when the government starts reviewing your charts."

"Use you common sense" "You heard patients say they lied to get prescriptions. "Why would they have to do that if he was so willing to give it to them."

"Ask yourself -- was he acting as a doctor or a drug dealer?"

"They want the Schneiders to take responsibility for the actions of others." "Where are the other conspirators?" "If this was truly about patient safety, and they had all this evidence, why would they let them stay in business for 2 years?"

"Look at all these binders, our government spent our money on -- killing trees." At this point the defense attorney is almost shouting in his closing remarks to the jury. (Maybe Mr. Williamson's legal expertise is environmental law).

"They made no attempts to make sure these drugs caused the deaths... We don't know."

"Rarely, if ever, did you see someone who passed away -- who didn't have a serious medical condition."

"They are trying to take advantage of your sympathy."

"The government's job is not to secure a conviction, it's to do justice."

"There has been a huge betrayal of trust by the government."

"This is an insurance reimbursement case that's been doctored up to look like a criminal case."

"This doesn't reach a case beyond a reasonable doubt. It barely meets the raised eyebrow level."

Kevin P. Byers, defense attorney for Linda Schneider made the following remarks to the jury this afternoon --

"If Linda Schneider was money laundering, why would she use local banks? Wouldn't she use Swiss or off-shore accounts?" (Local banks were used in Kansas, but out of country banks were also used in Mexico).

"At best, what they've shown is a civil lawsuit, not an intention to commit crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, but prosecutors have to prove that the fraud in the bill was "knowing and willful -- they can't do that".

"Instead of evidence, we have piles and piles of paperwork. We have charts, we have Power Points. We have insurance summaries."

Byers described prosecution witnesses as disgruntled former employees.

"The former employees from the clinic couldn't point to specific charts that had been falsified. You can't convict on generalities. Why? Because insurance was paying a lot of money -- because Dr. Schneider was treating a lot of poor people?"

"This was an insurance case, built by the insurance industry and flipped into a criminal case."

"Linda Schneider had no role in the billing -- She simply didn't run the billing process."

"Linda Schneider, the clinic manager, cooperated with agents looking for files and information."

" Look for that evidentiary ball. If you can't see it, you can't hit it --If you can't hit it -- you can't convict."

"The jury has to understand there's another side of the story."

"I think this is an easy call for an acquittal."

Who can take tomorrow,
Dip it in a dream?
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream,
The candyman? The Candyman can, the candyman can
The candyman can 'cause he mixes it with love
and makes the world taste good
And the world tastes good
'cause the candyman thinks it should.

The Series:

Jun-16-2010: Schneiders Fate in the Hands of the Jury - Marianne Skolek Salem-News.com

Jun-11-2010: Schneider Trial Week 7Marianne Skolek Salem-News.com