What the Judge Ate for Breakfast

As his ruling awaits appeal, U.S. Senior District Judge Monti Belot today issued a written order detailing his limitations of evidence in the case of a Haysville doctor as his wife.

Belot issued the written order after ruling from the bench on Monday that prosecutors could present evidence to the jury on only four of the 59 deaths they say are connected to the prescription practices of Stephen and Linda Schneider at their Haysville clinic.

The judge wrote that the value of providing evidence on all the deaths was “substantially outweighed by confusion of issues and the potential to mislead the jury. Moreover, the evidence of the large number of deaths will certainly cause delay and result in a needless presentation of cumulative evidence.”

The Schneiders’ lawyers have denied that any of the deaths are linked to the clinic bearing their name.

Prosecutors have said they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. It may take months for the judges in Denver to decide the issue, putting off the trial that had been scheduled to begin next week.

Belot also said the Schneiders’ defense is allowed to provide evidence that their clinic “was a legitimate operation and that they were treating patients accordingly.”

Prosecutors cannot use the terms “script doctor” or “pill mill,” which Belot ruled as “inflammatory rhetoric.” The defense also objected to the term “narcotics delivery system,” but the judge said the lawyers failed to show why that would be improper.

When dealing with serious issues, it pays to keep a sense of humor.

Stephen and Linda Schneider are charged with over-prescribing painkillers, leading to the deaths of 59 patients. But even they got a chuckle out of the banter between Judge Monti Belot and defense lawyer Lawrence Williamson at a pretrial hearing this afternoon.

Belot talked about a possible ruling for the defense and asked Williamson, “Would that make you happy?”

“It would make me happier,” Williamson said smiling.

“Well that’s not my job — to make lawyers happy,” Belot said.

As the hearing ended, the judge quipped: “Well, Mr. Williamson, anything else I can do to make you happy?”

“You could dismiss the indictment,” Williamson said.

“I don’t think so,” Belot said.

Update: Judge Belot ordered a hearing on Linda Schneider’s claims.

The wife of a Haysville doctor, charged along with her husband for illegally prescribing painkillers, is once again seeking release from jail. This time, her lawyers say she’s being mistreated in the Butler County Jail, having been put in solitary confinement and suffering from an infection possibly caused by a centipede bite.

Although Stephen Schneider was released in April to await trial, federal judges have repeatedly denied Linda Atterbury Schneider’s bond, because they’ve deemed her a flight risk. Earlier this month, her lawyers asked for her release, saying prosecutors would consent to her release as long as they could proceed to trial without her in case she jumped bond.

“No judge in his or her right mind would do so,” U.S. Senior District Judge Monti Belot said, denying the request.

Belot then suggested Schneider’s lawyers concentrate on preparing for trial Feb. 2 “rather than wasting their time (not to mention the court’s) with the type of motion practice which has necessitated this order.”

Today, Linda Schneider’s lawyers filed another request for her release because of abuse in the jail.

The motion said her latest problems began three weeks ago with an infection on the back of her neck.

“The cause of the infection is not clear, as it was apparently never diagnosed by a physician, but it is suspected that it was either staph, or a centipede bite (as there was a centipede infestation in the dorm in which Ms. Atterbury is housed, with the insects constantly falling from the ceiling onto the inmates),” the motion reads.

Lawyers said a jail nurse told Linda Schneider to tie her hair back while the infection heals. But a guard found the hair-tie and jail officials deemed it contraband, then placed her in solitary confinement.

Kevin Byers, a Columbus, Ohio, lawyer representing Linda Schneider, asked Belot to intervene on her behalf with jail officials.

Linda Schneider, a former licensed practical nurse, managed her husband’s medical clinic in Haysville before federal authorities charged them in a 34-count indictment nearly a year ago, saying they ran a “pill mill” that resulted in the drug overdose deaths of nearly 60 patients.

The Schneiders have maintained their innocence as they await trial.

Medical malpractice lawyers took notice when federal prosecutors released a recorded jailhouse phone call between indicted Haysville doctor Stephen Schneider and advocacy group leader Siobhan Reynolds.

Before Schneider and his wife Linda faced 34 criminal charges, they were fighting nearly a dozen malpractice lawsuits — all for the way they prescribed prescription painkillers. Some patients sued because they became addicted, other families because their loved ones died of drug overdoses.

But in this phone call, Reynolds tells Schneider to stop agreeing to settle the lawsuits.

Reynolds call to Schneider

Reynolds, founder of the non-profit Pain Relief Network, told us in an interview on her cell phone that the suits were “frivolous” filed by “ignorant people” and that her advice to Schneider did not conflict with other actions that purported to support the patients.

Reynolds explains phone call

“Some of these cases looked on their way to being settled, but in recent weeks that has stopped,” said Larry Wall, one of the lawyers who represent patients in several wrongful death suits. “It’s unfortunate that someone who is not a lawyer is giving that kind of advice.”

Wall said he expects to file more malpractice suits against Schneider.