Schneider Trial - Week 4

"The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business" - Clarence Darrow

Former doctor Stephen Schneider

(WICHITA, Kansas) - The trial of Stephen Schneider, former doctor, whose pain clinic has been linked to 68 deaths and who was known in the medical community as the "candy man" for his prescribing habits had some dramatic moments in the courtroom this past week.

Marianne Skolek

The jury heard Brent Rody, MD and former chief medical officer for Via Christi Hospital in Wichita, Kansas testify at the trial of Schneider and his wife, Linda, a nurse at the clinic. The Schneiders are charged with fraud, writing unlawful prescriptions leading to death, and money laundering at their former pain clinic in Haysville, Kansas.

Dr. Rody testified that patients from Schneider's pain clinic often came to the emergency department of the hospital asking for more narcotic medications -- many suffering withdrawal symptoms or overdosing on drugs.

Rody telephoned Schneider several times and told him to stop sending patients from his pain clinic to the emergency department. Rody also testified that Schneider was advised the amount of medications he was prescribing to patients at his pain clinic was "crazy."

"I told him very specifically he was giving them too many medications," Rody said.

Schneider's defense attorney in cross examination of Dr. Rody acknowledged that he never filed a complaint about Schneider with the Kansas Board of Healing Arts.

A video was shown to jurors of an interview Linda Schneider had with investigators regarding one of the pain clinic's doctors, Lawrence Simons, who was later terminated. He has since been convicted in an unrelated case for illegally writing prescriptions for a patient -- a woman he never met.

On Aug. 7, 2008, Simons surrendered his DEA registration number and was prohibited from dispensing or distributing controlled substances.

Former nurse Linda Schneider

A former clinic medical assistant, Robert Swonger testified that Simons would come into the clinic "impaired" by drugs or alcohol. Swonger would see Simons' patients, fill in the prescription information and have Simons sign them.

Swonger testified that Stephen Schneider would call patients "bad grapes" when the clinic received word of an overdose or a patient death. He also said Linda Schneider would refuse treatment to patients who could not pay.

Defense attorneys later tried to cast doubt on Swonger's testimony, saying during cross-examination that he was essentially practicing medicine without a license, which Swonger denied. Swonger admitted that he continued a "relationship" with Simons after he was fired in and the doctor wrote prescriptions for Swonger's relatives without seeing them.

Jurors also heard from former clinic receptionist Jennifer Harry, who testified that some patients got prescriptions after a physician assistant tried to cut them off because of drug abuse.

She said Linda Schneider told her that she reinstated the prescription of one patient because the patient paid cash. But defense attorney Lawrence Williamson showed jurors that the woman's prescriptions were actually paid by Medicaid.

Harry also testified that Linda Schneider changed fees charged by physician assistants so office visits were billed at the higher doctor's rate. But on cross-examination, attorney Eugene Gorokhov cited reports from interviews with Harry by government agents, in which she said that Linda Schneider did not change any medical charts to get the higher rate.

She denied Thursday having told agents that, but said she could not remember the name of any patient whose medical chart had been forged.

Physician assistant Charles Craig testified Wednesday that during his first three weeks at the clinic in 2004 he did not have a federal number necessary for prescribing controlled substances. He said that by the third weekend, Stephen Schneider left pre-signed prescription pads for him. Craig described the clinic as overwhelmed by patients and medical paperwork.

He acknowledged that some patients took advantage of delays in updating medical records to get early refills from the clinic's various practitioners.

Prosecutors expect to rest their case next week.

This article written as a voice for Shannon Me, age 25 died June 22, 2004

The Series:

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

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