XPost: alt.law-enforcement, alt.true-crime, can.legal   
   XPost: misc.legal   
   From: ultra@man.jp   
      
   DETROIT -- A doctor and a police officer, and several other men, ran a   
   prescription drug scam that led to the deaths of two patients, federal   
   authorities alleged Wednesday.   
      
   United States Attorney General Stephen J. Murphy held a press conference   
   Wednesday to announce the indictment of a Taylor doctor charged with killing   
   two   
   people and a Flat Rock police officer charged with agreeing to illegally   
   distribute prescription drugs.   
      
   "This is among the most serious cases we have seen in this district in the   
   controlled substances area," said Murphy   
      
   In a 22-page indictment, Murphy announced Dr. Paul Emerson, 49, was charged   
   with   
   murder after police said two of his patients died of drug overdoses.   
      
   According to police, Emerson recruited numerous phony patients and illegally   
   wrote prescriptions for millions of doses of narcotic and prescription drugs.   
      
   Police said he would pay the phony patients in cash and allow them to keep some   
   of the drugs. Emerson would then turn the drugs over to a pusher, or he himself   
   sold them on the streets, according to police.   
      
   Two of his patients died from drug overdoses, and police said many of the other   
   patients are medically maimed by the drug use.   
      
   Police said Flat Rock police Officer David Dewitt, 37, was one of the main   
   recruits. He was being charged with helping the doctor sell the drugs.   
      
   "One of the most disturbing aspects of this particular indictment is that   
   defendant No.4, David Dewitt, is a Flat Rock police officer. I am unsure of his   
   employment status right now," said Murphy.   
      
   Dewitt has been on the Flat Rock police force for 14 years and is currently   
   suspended without pay.   
      
   "This individual was getting prescriptions filled as an officer, while he   
   possessed a firearm. He is accordingly charged in one of the latter counts in   
   the indictment with possessing a firearm while using and being addicted to   
   powerful controlled substances," said Murphy.   
      
   Also named in the felony indictment, which carries penalties of up to 20 years   
   or life in prison, were Kenneth McAllister of Taylor, Richard Testai of   
   Rochester Hills, Brian Bellinger of Wyandotte and Jeremy Szymecko of Southgate.   
      
   Emerson works at the Emerson Medical Clinic in Taylor. Police said until March,   
   when Emerson's medical license was revoked, he was writing prescriptions for   
   drugs such as OxyContin, Zantac, Vicodin, methadone and Valium.   
      
   Police said Emerson wrote over a million illegal prescriptions a year for the   
   past three years.   
      
   Emerson lived in a mobile home community in Monroe with his girlfriend and her   
   6-year-old daughter. Police and neighbors said he was using the house to deal   
   drugs.   
      
   "A lot of teenagers were coming and going," said a neighbor.   
      
   Emerson was released on a $50,000 cash bond and is wearing a tether. All the   
   other defendants were also released on bond Wednesday afternoon.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)