Posted on 01/27/2006 10:48:17 AM PST by JTN
The same judicial system that prosecuted Richard Paey for obtaining too much pain medication is now supplying him in prison with more than that amount to ease his tremendous pain.
60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer reports on this case, in which an accident victim's quest to medicate his pain ran afoul of drug laws, this Sunday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
A long-ago car accident and failed spinal operation put Paey in such severe pain that only escalating amounts of opiate medication could relieve it.
"As I got worse, I developed a tolerance also with the medication and so I needed larger doses," says Paey, who describes the pain as burning in his legs. "It's an intense pain that, over time, will literally drive you to suicide."
Paey, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis, did try to commit suicide at one point.
After moving to Florida with his wife and children, Paey says doctors there were wary of prescribing the amounts of pills he needed as that would draw the attention of law enforcement. So he persuaded his longtime New Jersey doctor to continue prescribing his medication in the high amounts necessary for relief. The doctor agreed to fax and mail prescriptions and sometimes verified them to pharmacists.
Paey's frequent refills did draw attention and, before arresting him for drug trafficking, the Drug Enforcement Agency visited his New Jersey physician, Dr. Stephen Nurkiewicz. When confronted by agents about the number of pills Paey had purchased — 18,000 in two years — Nurkiewicz rescinded initial statements of support for his former patient and said Paey was forging prescriptions.
"In Richard Paey's room ... were the raw materials to make prescriptions," Florida State Prosecutor Scott Andringa says. "They found a lot of documents that suggested forging prescriptions."
They also found 60 empty bottles of pain relievers, some of which surveillance teams had watched Paey purchase. Andringa says there was no evidence that Paey was selling his drugs, "but it is a reasonable inference from the facts that he was selling them, because no person can consume all these pills."
Paey, confined to a wheelchair, is now serving 25 years in a Florida prison. A jury convicted him of 15 counts of prescription forgery, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and drug trafficking. He had the choice of entering a guilty plea in exchange for no jail time but, for him, that was no choice, says Paey.
"Had I accepted a plea bargain and carried that conviction on my record, I would have found it near impossible to get any medication," he says. "I didn't want to plead guilty to something that I didn't do."
Paey denies selling his medication, saying he took and needed all 18,000 pills. This scenario — 25 pills a day — is plausible, says Dr. Russell Portnoy, chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine at New York’s Beth Israel Hospital.
Once acclimated to a drug, patients can regularly take what would be lethal doses to ordinary people, Portnoy says.
"It really sounds like society used a mallet to try to handle a problem that required a much more subtle approach," says Portnoy. "If they had taken this man who had engaged in behaviors that were unacceptable and treated it as a medical issue, it seems like this patient would have had better pain control and a functional life instead of being in prison."
Andringa disagrees. "This case is not about pain patients, it's just not. This case is about prescription fraud. We were very reasonable in this case. But once somebody says, 'I'm not going to accept a plea offer however reasonable it is …' "
Paey gets all the medication he needs now, in larger doses than he was taking before, from the state through a pump connected directly to his spine. He is appealing his conviction.
I don't need to explain it. Neither does he. The prosecutor does.
But that said, after a while a fairly large inventory of pills might possibly be built up and he'd be using up that supply instead of getting fresh prescriptions for a while. It doesn't sound mysterious at all.
I asked for a reasonable explanation, not all possible explanations.
Ain't freeDUMB great?
Why would he need to do that? Take several pills and sleep for several hours. The 'one pill per hour' was merely the average rate, not the dosage schedule.
The rate is only interesting for a reasonableness test. One pill per hour is not unworkable or unreasonable. One pill per minute, or a hundred pills per minute would sound less and less feasible would it not?
But one pill per hour is completely feasible and not unreasonable.
And again... the only reason for this reasonableness test was the prosecutor's allegation that he ~must~ have been trafficking in order to explain the volume. But this allegation doesn't withstand a little ordinary math.
2.The 'one pill per hour' was merely the average rate, not the dosage schedule.
Nice 180.
Either are reasonable explanations. You won't be happy unless someone could prove their explanation with clear and convincing evidence. In a criminal trial, a jury should consider the reasonable explanations and give benefit of the doubt to the accused. The fact that police said that during some three month period they could only find evidence that he was getting 12 pills a day worth instead of 25 pills doesn't prove anything. You're just just speculating as to the reason for it.
It that reasonable to assume? The large inventory that he kept, but disappeared when they searched him room where they found all the other incriminating evidence?
A good thing? Did I ever say the sentence was a good thing?
He had two, count 'em, two opportunities to avoid the mandatory sentence that the citizens of Florida want imposed on these types of criminals. He refused.
Now, maybe he refused because of the terms of the plea agreement. Maybe he had to admit he was dealing. Maybe he had to say who he sold to. I don't know. Maybe he thought he had a better chance with a sympathetic jury. I don't know why he refused.
But he had a choice. The 25 years was avoidable. I find it difficult to sympathize, given those facts.
Or maybe he wasn't able to get them. Doctor's don't hand out pain pills like they are complimentary breath mints, thanks to a fear of law enforcers who like to play doctor. From Linda Paey's speech:
Richard, like most pain patients, endured the degrading experience of visiting medical practitioners, emergency rooms, nurses, and doctors who, when we gave them information about his medical condition, didn't believe us. We tried to tell them what medicines he was on and how he was feeling, but instead of being perceived as a suffering patient, Richard was judged on the basis of a checklist of suspicious behavior. The suspicion of addiction and diversion is so strong that medical professionals don't hear the pain. They are listening only for signs that he might be an addict. He was hurt in 1985. This is not something new. I have been shocked to hear that so many other patients have the same experiences.It's also possible that he had enough on hand that it was not necessary to get prescriptions filled for the full amount that he was taking. How many pills did he receive in the months before January 1997?We rarely got care in emergency rooms. My three small children and I would sit in the emergency room in the middle of the night for hours with my husband. Pain is not triaged very highly. I think it is a common belief in the medical community that a patient who takes high doses of medication for a long time must be addicted. But a chronic pain patient who has been suffering needs that medication.
The same "general public" who support Richard Paey were, not too long ago, calling for Rush Limbaugh's head on a platter for (allegedly) doing the same thing. Why is that?
I think that both should be left alone.
The guy's got a wife and kids -- you'd think he'd do everything possible to stay out of prison. Then again, by going to prison, maybe he thinks there's a book deal or made-for-TV movie in the future. Call me cynical, but that's happened way too often.
After 25 years?
You know as well as I do that this case was ripe for jury nullification. Tragic accident, bungled surgery, wheelchair bound paraplegic, loving wife and family, in severe pain ... hell, I bet even you could have gotten that jury to vote not guilty.
Prospective jurors are often asked if they will vote to convict someone they believe to be guilty whether they agree with the law or not.
Nope. Unanimous, even knowing the mandatory minimum sentence and what that would mean. There's gotta be alot we don't know...Uh-huh. They convicted him of 15 counts of prescription forgery, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and drug trafficking. In Florida. I'd say they had a pretty good idea that the sentence would be severe.
First of all, it was unanimous only in this trial. There were two previous trials that were not unanimous. Second, according to statements from one juror, they did not know the min-man.
It was a gamble that almost paid off. One juror, Dwayne Hillis, told the Times he did not want to vote to convict Paey, but relented after he was assured by the jury foreman that Paey would receive probation. "It's my fault," said Hillis, a 42-year-old landscaper from Hudson. "Basically I should have stuck it out.""after a while a fairly large inventory of pills might possibly be built up"Hillis was misinformed by the foreman. Paey was convicted of "trafficking" in more than 28 grams -- less than one 100-pill prescription -- of Percocet, a medicine containing 1.5% oxycodone. Under Florida law, he faced a mandatory minimum 25-year prison sentence and $500,000 fine.
"They compromised," Paey said after the verdict, "and in the field of justice, compromises lead to horrible injustice."
"I said, "Guilty. Put it on the (verdict). I hope you all can live with yourselves,'" Hillis recalled. "I just hate myself for what I did."
It that reasonable to assume? The large inventory that he kept, but disappeared when they searched him room where they found all the other incriminating evidence?
I don't know if it is reasonable to assume it, but it is a reasonable possibility. It is possible that he began having trouble getting prescriptions filled and started to run low.
Or doing 25 years in prison, I guess.
"But he had a choice. The 25 years was avoidable. I find it difficult to sympathize, given those facts."
In a way I agree with you. This case should have never gone to trial. I'd agree with you entirely if it wasn't for the conviction for trafficking. That one bothers me. It doesn't appear at least from what we've read that there was enough proof for such a conviction. When convictions are had without sufficient proof, the system has failed. That doesn't just hurt this one man in this one particular case, it hurts everyone that might come in contact with the system. That's all of us, by the way, and we should all be concerned when we see people convicted on little or no evidence, because we or someone we care about could be next.
Tkdietz...I really admire your relentless attempts to be factual and logical with Paulsen. When I read these posts it is just unbelievable. All reason about how our judicial system works, what our laws actually say, and what little information in this case we have and STILL the hysterical WOD people can not follow through an argument with logic and coherence.
God help us and spare us from these "conservatives" who only want limited government and the rule of law when it suits their personal emotional agenda!
Oh...and to those who can't muster a logical argument or debate....save yourself the immature and inane flaming of my name...oh here,I'll do it for you again, " Duh. You really aren't a "recovered hippie" yet!
Of course its reasonable. I had some surgery last year, from which I've still got meds left over. I've refilled prescriptions that hadn't yet run out. I'm sure it happens all the time. But that's not the point.
I'm still unimpressed with the state's interest in mucking about in this guy's pain management. I frankly don't care how much percodan or oxycontin or whatever he takes.
But then again, I've never really understood why there's a black market for these pain meds. They don't ~do~ anything close to what recreational drugs do. Why bother? But that's a different topic.
Thanks.
The LAST three month period right before he was arrested, not "some" three month period. The guy is doing 800 pills a month for two years, then drops to 400 pills a month for the three months before he is arrested. Why?
Occam'sRazor says he only needed 400/month and at one time was selling the other 400. Proof? I have none. Just common sense.
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