Richard Johns Defense Asks Judge to Dismiss Indictment in Painkiller Case

Defense attorneys have asked a federal judge to dismiss the indictment that accuses suspended Little Rock physician Richard Johns of illegally distributing the painkiller oxycodone, including the overdose that killed a young Cabot man. At a minimum, attorneys Bud Cummins and Paul James hope to delay Johns' trial, which is scheduled to start Jan. 23. The motion to dismiss the seven-count indictment, filed Wednesday, argues that Johns has been deprived of his constitutional right to due process because state law has prevented him from using the state Prescription Monitoring Program's database in his defense. The request to dismiss the charges completely follows a hearing in October at which Johns' defense argued that prosecutors should not be able to use data from the PMP because an overly broad search warrant was used to obtain the Johns' prescription records. U.S. District Judge Brian Miller has not ruled on that motion to suppress evidence. State law has prevented Johns' defense attorneys from accessing PMP data in order to determine whether any other physician might have prescribed the pills that "caused the death of another individual." Neither the indictment nor the recent defense filings identify the victim; Arkansas Business has determined that he was Curtis Michael Norris, 25, who died in Lonoke County in November 2014. Johns' defense attorney assert in their motion to dismiss the charges that he refused to write a prescription for the decedent on the day of his death,...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news