Newflash - PRN in Kansas (updated news archive); collected journalism; War on Doctors/Pain Crisis blog of the Pain Relief Network; Most recently updated: 2008-04-28.
See also:
PRN Rocks the KASBAH - Siobhan Reynolds on Dr. Schneider case; 2008-01-18
and,
PRN has CAKE (KAKE!) in Kansas - KAKE-TV coverage
Schneider Says Case Got Out of Hand
By: Ron Sylvester; The Wichita Eagle; 2008-04-26.
... "Schneider said that if the board had handled its investigation properly, he might have been exonerated through a medical review, alleviating the need for criminal prosecution." ...
Jailed Kansas doctor accused of running `pill mill’ out on bond
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-04-25.
... "The doctor said it was "terrible to hear all those things" in the charges against him and his wife, but that the couple will show the claims aren't true. It will be easier to help with his defense now that he is out of jail, he said." ...
Jailed Kansas Doctor Awaiting Release On Bond On Friday
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-04-24.
... "[The Judge] refused to grant the government’s request to keep Schneider, his family and others from contact with all other former patients." ...
More Limits Sought for Schneider Bond
By: Ron Sylvester; The Wichita Eagle; 2008-04-24.
... "The government wants the “no-contact” condition extended to Schneider’s family, friends, former employees and members of the Pain Relief Network advocacy group, including its leader, Siobhan Reynolds." ...
Judge Orders Dr. Schneider Released
By: Alex DeLuca; War on Doctors/Pain Crisis; 2008-04-23.
My comments regarding:
U.S.A. v. Stephen and Linda Schneider - Release Memorandum and Order (PDF) - Judge D.W. Bostwick, 2008-04-21.
Doctor Seeks to Quash Subpoenas on Malpractice Settlements
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press, Fort Mill Times; 2008-04-18.
... "The AP, citing interviews and documents it obtained, reported in February that malpractice attorneys had worked closely with prosecutors to help indict the Kansas doctor and his wife." ...
Doc Fights Prosecutors' Efforts to Gag Him
By: Associated Press, KSHB-TV News; 2008-04-17.
... "'Apparently, having become dissatisfied with the emergence of certain facts, the government now seeks to repress the reporting of the truth,' according to the defense motion. 'The defendants are not afraid of the truth, and oppose the government's request for a gag order.'" ...
Prosecutors in Case Seek to Shut Up Doctor, Critics
By: Drug War Chronicle; 2008-04-11.
... "Prosecutors had no problem with media coverage of the case when they trumpeted the arrests of Schneider and his wife back in December, and they remained quiet when local media ran stories supportive of the prosecution. But questions raised in the press by Reynolds and other supporters about the 34-count indictment of Schneider accusing him of a variety of crimes related to his prescribing of opioid pain medications have the feds seeking to silence their foes." ...
Attorneys File Emergency Appeal for Nurse in "Pill Mill" Case
By: Associated Press; 2008-04-09.
... "Prosecutors say she is faking a deteriorating mental condition to get out of jail. Her attorneys have agreed to another exam, but oppose the inpatient examination." ...
Prosecutors Try to Silence Pain Activist
By: Maia Szalavitz; The Huffington Post; 2008-04-08.
... "Prosecutors say she is faking a deteriorating mental condition to get out of jail. Her attorneys have agreed to another exam, but oppose the inpatient examination." ...
Feds Request Gag Order in ‘Pill Mill’ Prosecution
By: Associated Press; Topeka Capital-Journal; 2008-04-04.
... "In court papers, the U.S. attorney's office asked for a restraining order to keep physician Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, from talking to the media. Prosecutors also asked that the judge extend that order to include the Schneiders' family members and Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, a patient advocacy group." ...
Letter to the Editor: It's About the Pain Crisis
(Letter in response to "Physician Prolific at Writing Prescriptions, directly below)
By: Siobhan Reynolds; Topeka Capital-Journal; 2008-04-04.
... "Never, in Pain Relief Network's six years working with the media around similar cases has our issue been treated so unfairly, nor have we ever seen a reporter allow himself to be so thoroughly exploited to its own ends by the US Attorneys office." ...
Physician Prolific at Writing Prescriptions - 'Pill Mill' Operator Indicted in Deaths; State Slow to Act
By: Tim Carpener; Topeka Capital-Journal; 2008-03-28.
... "The Pain Relief Network founder's rebuttal, according to Shipman, was, "Unfortunately, there will have to be deaths for this cause." ...
Kan. Ag’s Office Keeping Eye on Pain Relief Network’s President
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-03-25.
... "'We will continue to monitor her conduct as the case moves forward and take action if appropriate,' [spokeswoman for Kansas Attorney General Steve Six] Anstaett said. 'The unauthorized practice of law is something our Consumer Division investigates and takes very seriously.' [Siobhan Reynolds] behavior so far does not rise to the level of unlawful practice of law, Anstaett said." ...
Schneider Patients Claim Gov’t Harassment (with Comment by Alex DeLuca and forum discussion)
By: KAKE (ABC) TV, Kansas; 2008-03-21. (View the TV news video!)
... "Now several Schneider patients say federal agents are forcing their way into their homes without warrants, asking a lot of questions, and even taking items that don’t belong to them." ...
Pain Patients Excluded from Hearings on Prescription Drug Abuse
By: Siobhan Reynolds; President, PRN - Submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs: "Gen Rx: Abuse of Prescription and OTC Drugs"; 2008-03-08. (Blog version + link to PDF)
... "It is unfortunate that Pain Relief Network was not invited to represent the patients at this hearing, and so the public will instead be treated to a kind of government fear show pushing this year’s moral panic, prescription drug abuse, that seeks merely to distract attention away from the government’s astonishingly brutal and thoughtless drug war campaigns, willfully ignoring direct harm to millions of innocent citizens, though their plight is in plain view."
Nonprofit Accused of Exploiting Schneiders
By: Ron Sylvester; The Wichita Eagle; 2008-03-08.
... "Frankly, I'm dumbfounded," Reynolds said of Treadway's motion. "This is like the U.S. government going after the ACLU for its political work, going after Human Rights Watch. That's the level of interference we're talking about here." ...
Feds Target Pain Patient Group's President
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-03-07.
... "There is nothing wrong, unethical, illegal, immoral about any of this. ... This is an attack on my fundamental liberty to do our work," Reynolds told The Associated Press. "I've developed some opinions after 15 cases of seeing innocent doctors going to prison for doing absolutely nothing but practicing medicine." ...
[This same article appeared in the New York Times, 2008-03-08, entitled: Doctor Indicted]
Judge Denies Patients’ Plea for Restraining Order
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-29.
... In denying the Pain Relief Network's requests for emergency orders, Brown told a room crowded with about 40 of Schneider's patients, some of them on crutches, that if they needed care they should go to the emergency room, not the court. ...
Pain Relief Network Raises Ante in Suit over Kan. Doctor's Case
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-28.
... The Justice Department said that with the latest filing PRN is seeking to insulate every medical practitioner in Kansas from the restrictions set forth in the Controlled Substances Act—arguing PRN lacks standing to pursue such relief and the court lacks jurisdiction to grant it. ...
Jugde Sets Emergency Hearing for Patients of Jailed Doctor
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-19.
... "I pray the judge gives the patients the relief we seek on their behalf," she said. "It would have been better if (he) had gone ahead and granted the temporary restraining order ... so many people are being damaged today, tomorrow and every day as long as the clinic stays closed." ...
Jailed Kansas Doctor in Pain Pill Storm
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-19.
... The New Mexico-based Pain Relief Network hopes to mount what it vows will be a landmark federal case over prescription painkillers. "It has all the elements we want: an innocent doctor, destroyed vulnerable patients, a wonderful legal team with heart, a family that really hangs together — right in the Heartland of America. I couldn't ask for more," said Siobhan Reynolds, the network's president. ...
PRN and Patients Hold TV Press Conference
By: Associated Press; WIBW-TV; 2008-02-19 (includes video)
... The patients held a news conference this morning outside the federal courthouse in Wichita. They wanted to draw attention to their plight and the civil lawsuit filed against the government last week on their behalf. The lawsuit, filed by the New Mexico-based Pain Relief Network, claims the government put patients in mortal danger and created a public health disaster. ...
PRN v Kansas, KASBHA, Mukasey, Melgren, and the DOJ - (the filed lawsuit)
FULL TEXT LAWSUIT + APPENDIX + ALL EXHIBITS (ZIP)
By: Uzo L. Ohaebosim, for PRN, on behalf of the patients of Dr. Schneider; US District Court - Kansas; filed: 2008-02-12
... WHEREFORE, Plaintiff Pain Relief Network respectfully requests the following relief:
(1) that, in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in Glucksberg and Vacco, the Court declare that there is a fundamental right to relieve severe pain through effective medical treatment in the form of FDA-approved pharmaceuticals; ...
PRN and Schneider's Patients to Sue Government
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-11
... [PRN, in seeking an emergency temporary restraining order] contends the Board of Healing Arts and a Kansas district court ignored the danger to 1,000 medically vulnerable patients who have been forcibly abandoned and must now fend for themselves. The group contends pain is a significant cause of death, including progressive brain damage. ...
Malpractice Lawyers Helped Federal Prosecutors Indict Kansas Dr. Schneider
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-06
Malpractice attorneys worked closely with federal prosecutors to help indict a Kansas doctor accused of illegally prescribing painkillers linked to the overdose deaths of 56 patients, attorneys acknowledged in interviews and in documents obtained by The Associated Press. ...
[Abandoned] Patients Rally in Support of Indicted Doc [Schneider]
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-02-02
About 30 patients of a Haysville physician rallied... to protest his prosecution for allegedly illegally prescribing medication. Braving cold temperatures, the chronic-pain patients [proclaimed] their growing desperation to find physicians willing to treat them. ...
With Doc Behind Bars, Patients Wonder Where to Turn
By: Drug War Chronicle; Issue #521; 2008-02-01
In a drama that has been played out all too many times across the country in recent years, the Justice Department's campaign against prescription drug abuse -- if you can call it that -- came in crushing fashion to Haysville, Kansas, last month. ...
Indicted Kan. Doctor's License Suspended
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-01-30
A state hearing officer suspended the license of a physician accused of running a "pill mill'' that caused the overdose deaths of four patients, saying Tuesday that the doctor poses a danger to the public health and safety. ...
Clinic Supporters Plan to Fight Forced Closing
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-01-23
Patients of an embattled Haysville physician plan to ask a Kansas court Wednesday to block his clinic's forced closing and appoint a "special master" to oversee its finances. ...
PRN Sues to Protect Dr. Schneider's License
By: Deb Gruver; Wichita Eagle; 2008-01-18
The Pain Relief Network this week sued the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, hoping to prevent it from yanking Haysville physician Stephen Schneider's medical license. The lawsuit, filed in Sedgwick County District Court, seeks a temporary restraining order or injunction against the board, which is charged with regulating doctors and other medical professionals in Kansas. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1, 2008. ...
Schneider's Patients Ask State Court for Injunction
By: Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press, Wichita Eagle; 2008-01-17
Patients of a Haysville physician who is charged with illegally prescribing pain medication asked a Sedgwick County court for an injunction prohibiting a state board from revoking the doctor's medical license. ...
Letter from Jailed Dr. Schneider Alleges Poor Treatment
By: Roxana Hegeman; AP, Wichita Eagle; 2008-01-14
Haysville physician Stephen Schneider, jailed while awaiting trial on federal charges of illegally prescribing pain medication, said he has filed a complaint with jailers after the U.S. Marshals Service ordered him put in isolation and cut off his phone and visitation privileges with family. ...
Feds seek to revoke legal counsel for doctor
By: Roxana Hegeman; AP; Jan 12, 2008
WICHITA - The government is seeking to revoke the court-appointed counsel for an indicted Kansas doctor and his wife accused of illegally prescribing drugs that led to at least four deaths. ...
PRN to Challenge Controlled Substances Act in Lawsuit Aimed at Protecting Physicians, Patients
By: Drug War Chronicle; Issue #518; Jan 11, 2008
Haysville, Kan. - ... [PRN] will argue that the way the federal Controlled Substances Act is applied to doctors and patients is unconstitutional. ...
Doctor, wife held incommunicado from family
By: Roxana Hegeman; AP; Jan 10, 2008
WICHITA, Kan. - Gina Schneider, 14, had just one question as she and her sister sped away from a prison after federal marshals refused to let the two see their father: "How can they sleep at night after doing that?". ...
Protesters pack office of jailed physician
By: Roxana Hegeman; AP; Jan 9, 2008
HAYSVILLE - A candle for St. Jude, the saint of hopeless situations, burned next to a pile of petitions signed by patients Tuesday at the clinic where physician Stephen Schneider and his nurse wife, Linda, practiced medicine before he was charged with illegally prescribing drugs. ...
Pain group to seek injunction in doctor's case
By: Roxana Hegeman; AP; Jan 4, 2008
WICHITA, Kan. - A national pain relief group says it will seek a civil injunction to keep the Justice Department from prosecuting a Kansas doctor indicted on federal charges that he ran a "pill mill" from his Haysville clinic. ...
Clinic’s Troubles Predate Raid
By: Dion Lefler, et al.; Wichita Eagle; Sept 18, 2005.
WICHITA, Kan. - ... The clinic vaulted into the public eye on Tuesday, when a team of federal and state agents strung police-line tape around it and spent the day searching the premises. The clinic reopened Wednesday. Details of the raid are sketchy, with officials declining to comment on what they were looking for. ...
As always, we ask that you help PRN fight to protect the rights of patients and the doctors who treat them. Thank you for clicking the link below.
www.painreliefnetwork.org
info@painreliefnetwork.org
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