The Pain Relief Network

WICHITA | A federal judge on Wednesday refused to free a nurse jailed accused of running a "pill mill" linked to dozens of overdose deaths, saying the woman is a flight risk.

In a written ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick ordered Linda Schneider held until her Feb. 2 trial on charges of conspiracy, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, health care fraud, illegal money transactions and money laundering.

An indictment against she and her husband, Dr. Stephen Schneider, links the couple's Haysville clinic to the accidental overdose deaths of 56 patients. It also accuses the couple of directly causing four deaths and contributing to the deaths of 11 other patients. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The doctor was released in April pending the couple's trial, but his wife has been held since her arrest in December.

In his ruling, Bostwick said the government established that she has the financial means to flee to Mexico, has a long-term lease on a home in that country, and has close friends or relatives who could help her avoid detention.

"Her desire to get to Mexico is clear from her recorded telephone calls," Bostwick wrote. "While she might argue that she had no intent to go to Mexico until this case is resolved, other statements indicate that she wanted to be able to go where she wants to go as soon as she gets out of jail."

Bostwick noted Schneider could ask the presiding judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot, to review the decision.

While she argued that she poses no greater risk of flight than her husband, Bostwick said the court record does not show that Stephen Schneider had the same interest in Mexico as his wife.

Her sister, Pat Hatcher, said she and Stephen Schneider were heartbroken by the ruling.

Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, which has supported the Schneiders, criticized the decision.

"It is a blatant attempt — and a successful one now — to interfere with her ability to defend herself, to actually make it impossible, and that is something everybody in this country should sit up and take notice," Reynolds said.

Bostwick pointed out that his decision was not based on any testimony from an evidentiary hearing earlier this month in which a woman who had been jailed with Linda Schneider in Butler County, said the nurse had tried to obtain fake identification. Bostwick said he found that "a good portion" of Stacey Hill's testimony was not credible.

Prosecutors earlier had indicated that if Schneider weren't released, they would withdraw a request to revoke her probation in a previous, unrelated case in which she pleaded guilty to helping a Mexican national whom she considered her "adopted son" get a false Social Security card.