June 2006 Friends,
Dr. Williams died last weekend at the Federal Prison facility at Butner, NC. He died of cancer. His attorney, Michael Ufferman had been unable to secure him a compassionate release.
His case made what is the cutting edge of this prosecutorial push to criminalize medicine. The appeals courts made no bones about it-negligence, in the context of pain treatment is criminal and punishable by life in prison.
His case was perhaps the most successful government railroad I have seen to date. Because he was running a less than tight ship, and he had extraordinarily incompetent counsel, Dr. Williams became the object of the government's campaign of demonization.
That he was black, made it all the easier. That he had a 'prior' made it easier still.
I spoke with Dr. Williams on several occasions and very much regret that I was unable to visit him before he died.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't have the financial or emotional resources to visit him this past spring. I was afraid that I might start crying and never stop, my sadness over these injustices had me down.
I was called initially by his daughter who said that he had brought his briefcase to his sentencing, and that after the lynching was over (and truly this was the atmosphere of the proceeding) they took him away and she opened up his case and on top of everything was a copy of the Village Voice turned to the article about this government crackdown and the picture of me.
Once he and I spoke he was very grateful to simply have someone who understood what had happened to him and that he had been trying to help people, and that was all. He was a gentle, learned man who had been working to serve a community is desperate need of his services.
May God Bless him and keep him.
Siobhan
http://www.xanga.com/cordelia_naismith/498761416/item.html
12/04 - Friends,
I spoke, last evening with Dr. Freddie Williams' attorney. Dr. Williams is
suffering from colon cancer and has a large mass in his throat as well which is
beginning to interfere with his ability to speak.
He has been transferred to:
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 1600
Butner, NC 27509
His prisoner number is 09177-017 Unit 4B
We are working to get him out pending appeal-partly on the strength of the
arguments that can be made regarding that he was tried on a civil as opposed to
a criminal standard and that his health is so poor.
His lawyer seems very bright and I have put him onto Eli.
Please write him.
Siobhan
09/04 -
Friends,
I spoke with Dr. Williams this week. He was finally able to call me from his
maximum security prison.
He tells me that he had no investigator and that there were something like
90
witnesses against him while his side was permitted like 3 or 4 himself
included (one finds witnesses for one's side with investigators)
Sounds like an even bigger debacle than Comprehensive Care.
A woman got on the stand and said that her son for whom Dr. Williams had
prescribed a months worth of Oxycontin for an undisputed painful condition,
shot
all of the pills at once and died.
She cried and cried.
When he was sentenced to life in prison, the government had previously
announced that they were seeking life so a whole crowd came to the court to
watch
the show.
The judge told Dr. Williams that she was amazed he had ever even plead not
guilty.
I didn't have much to encourage him with except our political and legal
progress.
We dont have the money to pick up his appeal.
I also understand that Dr. Graves' appeal was turned down without comment by
an appellate panel.
Not looking too good, folks.
The lack of support by these doctors' colleagues is stunning.
Siobhan Reynolds
Family Member of a Chronic Pain Patient
President
PRN
www.PainReliefNetwork.org
"Standing up for patients in pain and the doctors who treat them"
DOCTOR GETS LIFE FOR DRUG DEATHS
Aug/2004
PENSACOLA - http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGB8KKJUNYD.html
A Florida Panhandle doctor was sentenced to life in prison
for illegally prescribing and dispensing medications, including
painkillers, that led to two overdose deaths.
Freddie J. Williams, 54, received the life sentence Wednesday for
prescribing oxycodone that led to the death of Brian Sanders in 2002
and Bonnie Ramos in 2000.
U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers also ordered Williams to pay more
than $2 million in restitution to medical insurance providers and a
wholesale pharmaceutical distributor.
Williams maintained his innocence, saying some patients lied to him and
others forged prescriptions.
``I prescribed narcotics in good faith and for legitimate medical
purposes,'' Williams said.
Oxycodone is the active ingredient in OxyContin, linked to more than
100 deaths across the nation.
Florida Pain Doctor Found Guilty of Illegal Prescribing
6/25/04
Panama City, Florida Physician Dr. Freddie Williams has been convicted on all counts of a 94-count indictment charging him with improperly prescribing opioid pain relievers. A federal jury reached the verdict after three hours of deliberation on June 16.
The verdict in the Williams case marks the second successful prosecution of a Florida panhandle pain physician. In 2002, Dr. James Graves was convicted of the Oxycontin-related deaths of patients. He is currently serving a 63-year sentence while appealing the verdict. Prosecutors in South Florida were forced to drop similar charges against another physician, Dr. Dennis Deonarine, earlier this year.
The prosecutions are part of a nationwide campaign against prescription drug abuse led by the Bush administration and eagerly embraced by state and federal prosecutors across the country. According to the American Academy of Physicians and Surgeons (http://www.aapsonline.org), dozens of doctors from coast to coast have been prosecuted on similar charges. More have faced scrutiny and discipline from state medical boards.
Florida prosecutors portrayed Dr. Williams as a mercenary who was not interested in treating patients. Williams was "a drug dealer with a medical license," said Assistant US Attorney Stephen Kunz during opening arguments. "This is about a doctor peddling controlled substances, highly addictive opiates, for cash money."
According to prosecutors, Williams' office files showed little or no justification for the prescribing. Williams took the stand in his defense and conceded prescribing Oxycontin to his two daughters without having complete medical files on them and even though one of them had a history of using crack cocaine. But he denied the broader allegations.
According to Williams' defense lawyer, Armando Garcia, Williams kept poor records and sometimes lost case files, but that make him unprofessional or irresponsible. Williams could be "sloppy, lazy, and negligent," Garcia told jurors, but that did not make him a criminal. Williams had been deceived by some patients who were addicts and lied to obtain drugs, said Garcia. "Maybe he's just a little too naive," Garcia said. "Maybe he believed people he shouldn't have believed."
Now he faces life in prison.
Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/341/freddiewilliams.shtml for earlier coverage of the Williams case.
