Kendall Coffey Comments on the Rush Limbaugh Case

Fox News Channel-The Factor ^ | 12-23-03 | Kendall Coffey and John Kasich

[Matchett-PI]

This was transcribed by me from my own personal video and audio tapes of this interview.

One segment of "The Factor" on The Bill O'Reilly Show - Fox News Channel - Tuesday evening - 12-23-03 - Aproximately halfway between 8 and 9 PM EDT

Host: Former Ohio Congressman, John Kasich - sitting in for O'Reilly

Guest: Former US Attorney, Kendall Coffey, Miami, Florida

John Kasich (doing the introduction to the topic - I missed the first couple of words): "...to look at his medical records to decide if he should be charged with 'doctor shopping' for prescription pain killers.

Limbaugh's lawyer has already appealed, and yesterday he said Rush was blackmailed by his former housekeeper. Limbaugh, himself, said the Democrats are behind his legal troubles.

So could there really be a political agenda here? Joining us from Miami is former U.S. Attorney, Kendall Coffey.

Mr Coffey, why do they need to look at these very private medical records, you know, the relations between a patient and his doctor?"

Coffey: "Very sensitive, very confidential, and certainly protected by the law. But what the judge found, is that the prosecutor has a legitimate interest in them because of the theory of the prosecution, which is 'doctor shopping'. That is to say, according to the prosecution, 2000 pills purchased within a six month period from four different doctors, under Florida law, it's a class three felony to be going to different doctors within a 30-day period, without disclosing to one doctor that you're getting essentially the same prescription drug.

That's the theory of the prosecution - too early to tell whether it's going anywhere, but understandable that a judge would not want to shut down the prosecution this early in the process."

John: "Mr. Coffey, you've had a lot of experience in these sorts of things, ahhh, a prosecutor going after a guy who's got cronic pain, in and out of facilities, uhm, what's the typical way in which they would treat somebody who is a user of prescription drugs? Or an abuser of prescription drugs?"

Coffey: "Well, John that's the big question here, because there is a huge divide between users and traffickers. And we're not hearing any allegation that Rush Limbaugh is a trafficker.

So it's a fair question to see why is this degree of intense effort being dedicated to somebody who, at worst, is apparently an addict who developed an addiction as a result of severe back pain.

That's really the profile of a person that you don't try to put into jail, but you write that kind of prescription for that kind of person for community service, treatment, and that would seem to be the logical outcome here for Rush Limbaugh. I'm not clear why the prosecution is going more aggressively in this direction."

John: "You know, Mr. Coffey, I've never met you before, I know you have had a history of supportiing some Democrats, but that doesn't matter to me, you seem like a fair guy. When I look at this case, and I see this prosecutor doing this, I think this stinks. I think this is, ah, this is political. Your take on it."

Coffey: "Well, the judge found that it's good faith. And I would be surprised, John, if this were some conspiracy theory involving national Democrats. But let's look at some of the other things..."

John (interrupting): "I'm not saying that, but what about a prosecutor can make a name for himself in Palm Beach County, a Democrat taking down the big dog, Rush Limbaugh?"

Coffey: "Well, that's a concern in every case involving a major celebrity. Rush Limbaugh, seems like, if he were just another guy who had an addiction problem, this would have been wrapped up weeks ago along the lines of what I described; lots of community service, treatment, then at some point the charges are dropped -- no conviction, end of the matter.

What happens sometimes is these kind of high-profile cases take on a life of their own.

The police that are involved, want to push, push, push and develop the case fully. The local newspaper has editorialized basically in favor of pursuing the case further.

So, while, whatever may be the landscape in this case, it is pushing the prosecution further from a point where, early in October, John, they had sent clear signals, from my reading the situation, that they were not going to pursue Rush Limbaugh, because their targets are pill peddlers, not pill-poppers. Something's changed, here."

John: "Is it possible, Mr. Coffey, that he will not be charged? 'Cause, you know, we gotta make it clear, Rush has NOT been charged yet for anything. Is it possible that the prosecutor could walk away from this?"

Coffey: "Well, I think that it's entirely possible.

What I expect, after the back and forth - it's clearly gotten more adversarial in recent days - that at some point, when the press heat is off, and the public pressure is off, they're gonna sit down, and they're gonna work out a deal that, at the end of the day, despite extensive efforts, is gonna be the same treatment that anyone else would have gotten - rich man or poor man - what amounts to pre-trial intervention, and as we just talked about, community service, treatment, and the book is closed and the chapter is over."

John: "Well, I hope. And I hope that - you know, I don't want to, I don't want to, you know, rip the prosecutor -- I don't know enough about him -- but I hope that at the end of the day we get some justice and they got some fair treatment. Thanks for being with us." [End of interview.]

End of transcript.

[thoughtomator]

I agree that Rush should be treated just like anyone else. And when we're sick of hearing about him getting raped daily in prison, maybe we will get rid of these evil laws.

[goldstategop]

Try to imagine the authorities even taking up the case if he wasn't famous. That's what I've been getting at - the more conspicuous you are the more people expect from you. And if you fail to meet their expectations, no one wants to hear from you again. True, OJ was never convicted of murder but he's now the world's loneliest man which in a condign way is a fitting punishment for his crime. Every one may start out with a presumption of equal treatment under the law but their station in life and people's perception of it, does influence the kind of treatment they'll get in the event they're suspected of wrong-doing.

[goldstategop]

If he were like you and me, that'd be the case. Fame is no respecter of persons as some would like to imagine. Being famous doesn't necessarily make you more immune to being sanctioned by the law - even though there is a perception prominent people have an easier time of it in court than the rest of us do.

[Tribune7]

Good work. Bump

[longtermmemmory]

That does not make it right. It is even worse in this situation because the procedures of the system are being excercised differently in this ONE case.

This is not a result of "station" in life. This is solely a result of being against the Democrat Party. This is no different than commuinsts in the USSR using all state tools to crush opposition.

In the end I hope this can be turned around to crush democrats.

[goldstategop]

And if Rush were a liberal celebrity do you think he should get a pass? Assuming everything else you heard about the case where exactly the same.

[longtermmemmory]

Only what I have said from day one. The same. A liberal who is caught will get the diversion treatment program just as ANYONE else.

If it was a liberal and the facts were identical I would want done what I have seen done. nothing.

[Matchett-PI]

Thank you.

[ConservativeMan55]

[Matchett-PI]

"Kendall Coffey - He was Gore's lawyer in the recount."

I know -- I was one of the Florida Freepers who went to Tallahassee during the re-count. Got the pictures and the videotape of C-Span's coverage of our FReep and the Miami Herald's article and Freeper interviews to prove it. LOL

[GeekDejure]

Ummmm... is this the same Kendall Coffey who purposely screwed up the Elian Gonzalez case so that Klintoon could deport the kid ???

.

[longtermmemmory]

This is going to become like the OJ case.

Rush=Ratings

Rush has 20 million listeners who have gone out of their way to see his appearances on TV. Even his TV show was a hit despite being burried at 2 am.

It is only natural that many will make their opions on the case a tool for PR.

BTW, as a reporter where would you rather be in December and Janurary. NY or sunny Palm Beach FL. Pay attention where the tag line of the report is comming from. If it says Miami it may be reporters decided to have fun in southbeach and the grove.

[Matchett-PI]

See #27.

[onyx]

I saw the interview. You have transcribed it accurately. Nice work.

[airedale]

To get 2,000 pills in 6 months how many pharmacies would he have had to use? He couldn't take the prescriptions to the same drug store or drug chain since their systems track what they sell by patient. They have to because of the problems of interactions as well as reporting issues with the controlled drugs. They advertise out here that they can get your prescription record at any of their stores. I'd really like to know more about the controls that pharmacies have on these kind of drugs.
A lot of wealthy people have lackeys to run tasks for them like picking up prescriptions for their employer and I suspect a lot of them take the prescription to the pharmacy and the wealthy person doesn’t even show up. I wonder if Rush was the one picking the meds up and ordering refills? Someone in household could have been authorized to do that for him.

How many of the type of pain killers a day could someone take and not die or be totally unable to perform their job at the level that Rush does?

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP for GREAT freeping.
This is what good freeping is. Nice work on the transcript.

Rush was a pill addict, like Jerry Lewis (percodan for back pain) and Elvis Presley, and a whole lot of other people (celebrities included) who never saw it coming - - the addiction just crept up on them. Rush's case SHOULD be a slam-dunk "get-teatment-pay-fine-do-community-service-don't-do-it-again" case. Anything else is clearly a political witch-hunt / vendetta.

[CyberAnt]

Let's get this clearly and plainly .. Rush Limbaugh is being targeted by the Hillary goon squad. If people can't see that, they are either deaf, dumb, blind or just plain stooooopid.

Al Franken and Ed Asner have said so very plainly. To make the statement (while salivating) .. "now we've got him" .. tells me everything I need to know. This is a hit on Rush because of his politics .. not because he's a celebrity.

Hillary is probably planning on running in 2004 .. and she will not be able to pull her stealth stuff with Rush revealing everything over the airwaves. Hillary only believes in free speech when people say nice things about her.

[The Electrician]

OK, but I will note that you have changed your line of argument from "he should have been treated differently" to "in reality people are treated differently depending on their circumstances". The latter is just a description of reality, whereas the former is advocating disparate treatment. So, are you still, or are you no longer advocating disparate treatment for identical offenses?

[GreenHornet]

Does anyone have any information regrding the number of people in Florida who have actually been prosecuted for "Doctor Shopping" during the last 5 years or so? I'm willing to bet it's a very low number - perhaps as low as zero.