The Agitator blog - I really wish I could just repost Tierney's entire column today, but I suspect the Times wouldn't look fondly on me if I did. If you can get a copy of the NY Times today, you should. It's worth the dollar. Tierney's column is a much-needed expose on the case of Dr. Bernard Rottschaefer, a case we've been covering on this site for several months.
This case is an absolute outrage. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan should be ashamed of the way she has treated this man, and for the way she continues to push for him to go to prison, despite overwhelming evidence that her drug war fervor led her to make a devastating mistake. It's pretty well known now that Buchanan harbors political ambitions in Pennsylvania. In a just world, the way she and her office have behaved in persecuting this man would ground those ambitions before she kisses her first baby.
Tierney's conclusion:
It's especially unfair for the D.E.A. to go after doctors who treat pain, because they're dealing with symptoms that are notoriously difficult to measure. Doctors can do tests, but they also have to make judgments based on what patients tell them -- and the Rottschaefer case ought to show the federal drug warriors how tricky those judgments can be.
If you believe Riggle's letters, as I do, there are two possible conclusions about the behavior of the D.E.A. agents and prosecutors. At worst, some of them illegally encouraged a witness to commit perjury. At best, they were duped.
The agents and prosecutors are supposed to be experts at detecting liars, and they had far better investigative tools available to them than Rottschaefer did. Yet they apparently weren't careful enough or shrewd enough to see through Riggle's story. If they don't deserve prison time for that mistake, neither does her doctor.
theagitator.com
The Outrageous Case of Dr. Bernard Rottschaefer
September 2005 - Over the last few months, we've been following the case of Bernard Rottschaefer, the Pennsylvania physician convicted of trading sex for OxyContin prescriptions. The prosecution's star witness was a prostitute named Jennifer Riggle, who testified she'd given Rottschaefer oral sex several times in exchange for opiate painkillers. Under cross-examination, Rottschaefer's attorney asked another woman making the same claims whether or not the doctor was circumcised. She couldn't answer. For reasons I can't fathom, Rottschaefer was still convicted.
As for Riggle, after the trial her boyfriend -- who had been in prison throughout the trial -- released a series of letters she'd written to him in which she admitted to lying under oath. She told her boyfriend in the letters that she'd made up the stories about oral sex in exchange for leniency from the U.S. Attorney's office on her own drug charges. The letters were stamped and dated, the handwriting was determined to be authentically Riggle's, and the boyfriend has signed sworn affidavits. The release of those letters should have at least won Rottschaefer a new trial, if not a judge-ordered acquittal. Neither happened.
Not only that, but the U.S. Attorney in charge of the case -- a law-and-order Republican and "rising star" named Mary Beth Buchanan -- has since steadfastly refused to press perjury charges against Riggle. It's a particularly glaring omission of duty, given that Buchanan has agressively pursued a slate of Democratic officials on perjury charges. In fact, not only has Buchanan's office not prosecuted Riggle, they're rewarding her. In may 2004, the U.S. Attorney's office requested leniency for Riggle in her own drug charges, writing:
"The defendant was fully cooperative and appeared to be truthful and candid. The defendant's cooperation significantly strengthened the government's case against Dr. Bernard Rottschaefer."
Of course, backing down from the plea would amount to an admission of wrongful prosecution on Buchanan's part. Better to let an innocent man go to jail and the lying dope dealer who put him there go free than admit to a mistaken, overly aggressive, politically damaging prosecution.
This case is an outrage. |
