Posted on 12/23/2003 7:42:00 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Prosecutors can examine Rush Limbaugh's medical records to determine whether he should be charged with "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff denied the conservative commentator's request to keep the records sealed.
Limbaugh's attorneys had argued that the seizure of the records from doctors in Florida and California violated the radio host's privacy. Investigators obtained the records last month after discovering that Limbaugh received more than 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors, at a pharmacy near his $24 million Palm Beach mansion.
Doctor shopping refers to looking for a doctor willing to prescribe drugs illegally, or getting prescriptions for a single drug from more than one doctor at the same time.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office began investigating Limbaugh last year, after his former maid told them she had been supplying him prescription painkillers for years.
Limbaugh recently admitted his addiction, stemming from severe back pain, and took a five-week leave from his afternoon radio show to enter a rehabilitation program.
And of course there is BillyBoyClinton, claiming that no one is ever prosecuted for lying about sex even if under oath. That's a pretty fair statement given the number of people who lie under oath or the penalties of perjury and the relatively few prosecutions that result. Nevertheless, Clinton lied under oath, the crime is perjury, and the Feds have the right to prosecute even the most people who lie under oath are never prosecuted.
Actually, you're wrong about this. One of the most astute observations about Clinton's impeachment came from a New York talk radio host who was actually a Clinton supporter. He was discussing the whole impeachment episode with a guest right around this time of year in 1998 (after Clinton had formally been impeached), and the guest commented that as of October 1998 he really didn't think it would ever happen.
"As of October, it never would have happened," the host said.
"What changed since then that led to this impeachment, then?" he was asked.
"What changed this thing completely was when they brought all those people to testify before the House committee -- those people who had all been prosecuted for perjury in civil cases involving consensual sex. You know, those people who had been prosecuted for things that 'nobody ever gets prosecuted for.'"
However, Rush has always struck me, again since day 1, as being somewhat of an egomaniac. That doesn't make him a bad person. I'm not the most humble individual myself (ask the Mrs.). The thing is, as I stated in another post, the end game of this situation if Rush really wants to make it go away ASAP is going to involve more public humiliation and embarrassment for him and a good measure of groveling before folks, including some folks that he probably despises.
I don't think my ego would allow me to do that, even with dire consequences staring me in the face, unless someone had a metaphorical pistol with the hammer cocked pointed at my head and/or my arm twisted behind me in a hammerlock. Lord knows what it would take to get Rush to capitulate.
I'm glad you said that; I was sitting here wondering what I was missing; I am a court reporter and I've sat through 20 years of doctors thumbing through patient records and reading them into the record; heck, I've got 100s of copies of VIDEOS of them doing just that downstairs in the office! Most of those are personal injury, but if those can be subpoenaed, then surely they can be for a criminal case.
Exactly right.
These "jailhouse lawyers" are foolish and tiresome
You cannot possibly be serious!
What if they show he was telling several doctors that they were the only physician he was seeing in order to get overlapping prescriptions of scheduled narcotics?
Ruh-roh!
Thanks for the clarification, which is why Rush really needs to grow up, because just like with Clintoon, people will step forward to talk about how they were prosecuted for equal or even less serious drug crimes then what Rush may be charged with. I heard him say something earlier in the show today about sports stars and hollyweird celebs who would never be prosecuted for the same thing. Rush might want to talk to Morton Downy and Derryl Strawberry who were prosecuted for possessing small amounts of cocaine, which in the eyes of the law and under sentencing guidelines is no more serious a crime than what Rushbo could get charged with.
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