A former Haysville doctor and his wife must turn over $130,000 being held in an Acapulco bank account, a federal judge ordered today.
U.S. Senior District Judge Monti Belot gave Stephen and Linda Schneider 30 days to give government prosecutors access to the funds. The Schneiders must forfeit money they received from illegal activities while running a “pill mill.”
A jury last summer in Wichita convicted the Schneiders of illegally prescribing pain killers, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of patients. The Schneiders were also convicted of money laundering.
An affidavit filed by lead investigator James Greer, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, said the Schneiders transferred the money to the Acapulco account in 2004 while operating their medical clinic.
In October, Stephen Schneider was sentenced to 30 years, Linda Schneider to 33 years in federal prison.
A former Haysville doctor and his wife owe more than $115 million to victims of their “pill mill,” according to a federal judge’s order filed late this afternoon.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot acknowledged in his ruling that Stephen and Linda Schneider will never be able to repay the debt. But the judge said the law requires him to order restitution.
A jury convicted the couple last summer of illegally prescribing pain killers and other crimes linked to the overdose deaths of 68 patients. In October, Belot sentenced Stephen Schneider to 30 years, and Linda Schneider to 33 years, and the government has seized all their remaining assets.
Belot ordered restitution for claims made by 117 insurance companies and former patients. The claims ranged from $300 by one insurance company to $50 million by a former patient.
“The jury was free to conclude that Karch was merely ‘an expert in his own mind,’ a charlatan pure and simple. This court has grown accustomed to, if not accepting of, professional witnesses. Karch, who charged much but prepared little for his testimony, is a prime example of the witness who, if nothing else, knows how to ‘dance with the one who brung ya.’”
Judge Monti Belot continues to admonish lawyers for motions they’re filing on behalf of Stephen and Linda Schneider, as the couple await trial charged with more than 30 federal crimes related to their prescription practices for painkillers at their Haysville clinic.
As in earlier orders, Belot’s latest ruling was terse and critical of the Schneider defense team’s efforts to argue their case
The Schneiders’ lawyers had asked Belot to reconsider a ruling last month, in which he rejected their attempts to keep prosecutors’ medical experts from testifying at the Schneider’s trial.
Belot noted in his order today the defense included a list of medical articles to support their arguments but which, in fact, supported the other side:
“The court is left to wonder whether defendants’ counsel even read the articles they
claim will require exclusion of the government’s experts’ testimony.”
Belot concluded that the government’s experts’ opinions “are reliable, credible and will be helpful to the jury” and the Schneiders’ lawyers “have failed to provide any basis to challenge that conclusion.”
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, 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.
“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.
