The Pain Relief Network

At the two-year anniversary of a federal raid on his office, a Billings doctor has not been charged with a crime or regained his authority to prescribe certain medicines.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents executed an administrative inspection warrant on Dr. Richard A. Nelson's West End neurology office in April 2005.

They took 72 patient files and suspended Nelson's ability to prescribe 200 medications, including narcotic painkillers. The patient files were later returned.

Agents apparently suspected Nelson or someone in his office of diversion, or illegally distributing legal drugs such as prescription painkillers.

Nelson specialized in treating patients with chronic pain, many of whom took prescription narcotics.

The DEA has never said what prompted its investigation, but Nelson's patients and employees, many of whom were questioned by agents, have said the focus was diversion.

Two years later, the DEA has not been in contact with Nelson, according to his wife, Jerrie Lynn.

"We haven't heard anything," Jerrie Lynn Nelson said this week.

Nelson petitioned the DEA several months ago to reinstate his prescription authority but received no response, Jerrie Lynn Nelson said.

Critics have accused the federal agency of putting physicians who prescribe narcotic painkillers out of business as a way to justify its war on drugs.

The president of a national pain advocacy group said she suspects the government backed away from the Nelson case after realizing the doctor planned to fight back.

"Whenever it starts to get bad for them, they get uninterested," said Siobahn Reynolds, who heads up the New York City-based Pain Relief Network and who traveled to Billings in the wake of the raid on Nelson's office. "They really only like cases where there's a pushover."

A DEA spokesman declined to comment on the Nelson raid, which was featured in Time magazine shortly after it happened, saying the agency does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.

"I can't even confirm we're investigating this person," said Mike Turner, a public information officer in Denver.

Charges stemming from DEA investigations generally must be filed within five years, but all investigations do not lead to charges, Turner said.

"Sometimes an investigation shows there wasn't a crime committed or determines there's not enough evidence to bring charges against a person," he said.

Meanwhile, Nelson was seriously injured in a car crash in October.

"He missed a porcupine on his drive in to work one morning," Jerrie Lynn Nelson said. "He went for a mighty spin and broke his neck."

Nelson suffered a head injury and was paralyzed from the neck down. Still, his mind is sharp, she said.

Before the crash, Nelson was seeing some patients while his wife operated an alternative medicine practice out of his office.

"We were making it until he had the accident," Jerrie Lynn said. "We weren't making it well, but we were making it."

Because he needs to focus his attention on recovery, Nelson changed his medical license to an inactive status earlier this month, she said.

She continues to see alternative-medicine patients at the Frontage Road office while caring for him. Friends and other volunteers help Jerrie Lynn keep an eye on Nelson during the day, she said.

The Nelsons had expected to pay off the practice and retire by now, but their business took a hit after the federal raid. Many patients had to find other doctors to refill their prescriptions and left Nelson's practice.

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