Posted on 05/01/2006 11:21:29 AM PDT by veronica
Pursuant to an agreement Rush has reached with state prosecutors in Palm Beach, Florida, they are finally abandoning their two-and-a-half year quest to criminalize a human tragedy—addiction to medication prescribed because of severe pain.
Unlike most of us, who get to keep our private struggles private, Rush’s celebrity ensured that his would be played out publicly. With characteristic candor and humility, he admitted he had a problem. And he did it in a way that is rare today, although one that came as no surprise to those of us privileged to know Rush. He took real responsibility.
He didn’t pretend to be a victim. He didn’t blame anyone or anything—not even the pain. Instead, he forthrightly acknowledged what he regarded as a personal failing, although most of us would aptly see it as a common trap for those with painful medical conditions. Equally important, he didn’t just talk about his problem. He dealt with it, continues dealing with it, and is overcoming it.
From day one he has maintained he is innocent of any crimes. That assertion has stood the test of time, and it stands today as this shameful investigation ends.
We are former federal government attorneys. We’ve collectively spent decades in law enforcement and believe passionately in its professional, non-political, non-partisan mission. Thus, it’s with outrage that we note that, rather than quietly dropping this embarrassment of an investigation, the state attorney, Barry Krischer—a politically active liberal Democrat—has insisted on filing a charge which he well knows will never be tried. Insisting, that is, on further media churning of an allegation of doctor-shopping that he’ll never prove.
Rush is entering a plea of not guilty. The case will be dismissed in 18 months, when Rush completes the treatment he undertook on his own. There is no reason to file a charge that is without foundation and will never result in a judgment of conviction. But, under Florida procedures, this means a person is “processed.” That is, by this petty maneuver, Krischer has arranged for a mug shot of Rush Limbaugh.
Krischer ought to be ashamed of himself, and the people of Palm Beach County ought to be frightened by what passes for law enforcement in their neck of the woods.
How many people do we know of—and how many celebrities can we name in sports, entertainment, politics, etc.—who develop substance-abuse problems? And in most instances the abuse is recreational, not an unintended fallout from treatment for real medical problems. Yet our society does not pursue these folks as criminals. They are treated with compassion. When they seek treatment, they win our admiration. And rightly so.
But not in Palm Beach County—at least not if your name is Rush Limbaugh. The state attorney’s office spent thousands of man hours and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars pursuing not a drug dealer, or a money launderer, or a real criminal—although scurrilous innuendo to that effect was leaked to the Florida press from time to time, thanks to the shameful manner in which this prosecution was run. No, those resources and taxpayer dollars were expended by a politically partisan and ambitious prosecutor to go after a celebrity with a medication addiction.
That’s not what happens in a professional law-enforcement office. In the hundreds of such offices across the country, dedicated men and women figure out what actual criminal activity threatens their communities and marshal their sparse resources against those threats. (Rush won’t brag about this himself, but we will: He has been a generous charitable supporter of those men and women, and particularly the families of those who have fallen in the line of duty, for many years.) In most places, the police have more than enough to do pursuing the drug traffickers who prey on neighborhoods. In Palm Beach, the state attorney apparently thinks funds that could have underwritten scores of law enforcement salaries and scores of serious cases are better spent harassing a good man who happened to have a common problem and happened to be a famous conservative.
We don’t like attaching the word “harassing” to the actions of a prosecutor. We’ve known too many honorable ones for that. But here, it fits to a tee.
Real prosecutors do not engage in selective enforcement. When they scrub the statute books and charge an unusual crime, it’s because they are faced with a unique case involving a truly dangerous person. But not in Palm Beach County. In county history, there apparently has been only one prosecution for doctor shopping—ever. Yet Krischer was so desperate for a mug shot, that’s what he came up with.
The truth is that Krischer never had a case. In November 2005, the assistant state attorney handling the investigation stood up in open court and made the mind-blowing admission that he had “no idea” whether Rush had committed a crime—after pursuing Rush, and crawling through every aspect of his private life, for over two years. He claimed he needed the court to authorize the evisceration of Rush’s doctor-patient privilege so he could interview physicians. Why? Because after months and months of poring over Rush’s actual medical records the prosecutor had no proof that Rush had done anything wrong. This should have come as no surprise since that’s what Rush had told them and shown them all along the way.
Nor did the harassment stop there. Rush was treated far differently from the average person at every juncture—but, of course, you already knew that because, as we’ve noted, the average person would not have been investigated for such a “crime” as doctor-shopping at all. For another example, real prosecutors are duty-bound to keep investigative information confidential. If they are ready to charge someone formally and back up the charges in court, fine. Otherwise, Americans are not supposed to be tried in the press. But Rush was the exception. His private medical records were splashed all over television once they were in the hands of the prosecutors.
Another example. People being investigated routinely retain lawyers. Those lawyers frequently interact with the prosecutors, for obvious reasons such as negotiating over demands for information. Those communications are supposed to remain confidential—again, real prosecutors put-up-or-shut-up in a court of justice; they know they are not supposed to tar people in the court of public opinion. In Rush’s case, however, state attorneys publicized their communications with Rush’s counsel. Worse, in this instance, they were actually given advice by the state attorney general and the Florida Bar Association advising them to seek a court’s permission before releasing such information—yet, they not only released it, they also misrepresented the advice they had been given.
Finally, in our criminal-justice system, it’s not the accusation that counts. We worked for the Justice Department for many years and can attest personally to something that is very well known: It is not difficult for a prosecutor to bring a charge. That truism was recently highlighted when another political state prosecutor, Ronnie Earle in Texas, obtained an indictment against Congressman Tom DeLay for actions that were not even chargeable as a crime under state law.
It is an American principle that a charge is only an accusation and stands as proof of nothing, because it is equally our heritage that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. It is the result of a case that matters, not the mere allegation. What counts is whether the authorities are able to back up their allegation in a fair fight in front of a neutral judge and jury, with the assistance of counsel able to challenge the prosecution’s case (something that doesn’t happen when a grand jury is considering an indictment). For those reasons, responsible prosecutors, when they are not in a position to prove a charge, don’t smear someone by bringing a charge.
Again, Palm Beach is different. Even though no case against Rush will be pursued, the state attorney has insisted on bringing a single charge he has no intention of ever trying before a jury. He’ll get his mug shot. The charge will be formally expunged after Rush completes 18 months of treatment—treatment he was undergoing anyway and would have finished regardless of any action by the state.
And why, you might ask, wouldn’t Rush fight this charge? Well, he did. He fought this politically motivated investigation for several years; he spent millions of dollars in legal fees challenging the state attorney every step of the way; and he went to the airwaves repeatedly to discuss his legal battle. In the end, despite Krischer’s efforts, Rush continues to maintain his innocence—and he does so as a matter of law—by responding once again with not guilty to a phony doctor-shopping charge the state attorney is unwilling to take to a jury. He has admitted to no wrongdoing at all. And now, finally, it is Rush’s innocence that remains unchallenged as this sad chapter comes to an end.
Rush is a decent, generous, honorable guy who has been dragged through the mud, at great personal embarrassment, solely because he is a conservative icon. When he wakes up tomorrow, he’ll still be a conservative icon. And Barry Krischer will still be a disgrace.
—Andrew C. McCarthy, a former chief assistant U.S. attorney in New York, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Mark R. Levin, a former Justice Department attorney and chief-of-staff to U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, is president of Landmark Legal Foundation.
That is my understanding. There are many doctors who will prescribe large amounts of narcotics to patients. Elvis Prestley's doctor is a good example.
I had lung cancer back in 1997. The cancer doctors prescribed huge amounts of narcotic drugs for me. They told my wife I was going to die.. so it did not matter if I became adicted. I took very few of the drugs... I just lived with the pain.
You're homepage on Free Republic says you're in your early twenties. I bet you haven't gotten to the age where back injuries and surgery become common. Having had back pain and surgery on a herniated disc that was completely surrounding my spinal chord, I think I have some understanding of what kind of pain he was going through. I have also on occasion in the nearly 5 years since my surgery, experienced extreme back pain that got me to seriously think about taking a vicodin to stop the pain. I can understand why someone might get addicted to narcotics when dealing with that level of pain.
No one knows anyone else's marriage and for you to speculate as to why Rush and Marta split shows your stupidity.
You have NO clue.
Best to keep your mouth shut.
For a man who loves to talk about personal responsibility
El Smackbo sure had the lawyers working overtime to save him from the "common man's" justice.
Me thinks I smell a troll!!!
And then when the charges expire after 18 months of inaction by the prosecutor, the records are completely expunged.
It was all lies they were telling us in the beginning. Rush told us this. Not all of us believed him.
I forget how many pills they said he was taking a day. I know for a fact there was no way he could have taken 1/4 the amount that they claimed.
Charges should be brought against the prosecuter for personal harrassment.
Exactly, it's drug diversion like he should have received two years ago but he was still arrested.
Yes. It was an outrage. And I'd like to have a word with Rush's ex-Housekeeper.
He is indeed, an amazing man. :)
...the state attorney, Barry Krischer—a politically active liberal Democrat—has insisted on filing a charge which he well knows will never be tried. Insisting, that is, on further media churning of an allegation of doctor-shopping that he’ll never prove.
Rush is entering a plea of not guilty. The case will be dismissed in 18 months, when Rush completes the treatment he undertook on his own. There is no reason to file a charge that is without foundation and will never result in a judgment of conviction. But, under Florida procedures, this means a person is “processed.” That is, by this petty maneuver, Krischer has arranged for a mug shot of Rush Limbaugh.
You're free to dislike Limbaugh for whatever reason, but surely you understand this entire fiasco was nothing but an invented, politically driven witchhunt. Seriously -- what is the "spin" supposed to be? With what part of the above do you disagree?
Oh. You can't be glad that someone didn't get wrongly nailed? Says more about you, than Rush.
No. Mere speculation. (non sequitur snip--description of poster's sudden hearing loss correction attributed to regimen of steroids.)
Several years ago my sister was prescribed OxyContin and lost a great deal of her hearing before its use was discontinued. Rush's hearing loss is curiously correlated with OxyContin [ab]use. I don't know what other drugs she or he may have been using concurrently, but OxyContin appears ototoxic based on these and similar cases.
I'm firing off an email to my otoneurologist now to get his take on the ototoxic properties of OxyContin.
bttt
Spin is when you take facts out of context. It seems that's what you want to do when you just want to repeat "Rush was arrested".
I think you make a very valid point, and I agree that that kind of pain can make one sink into addiction. My point of contention with Rush is not that he abused drugs, but that he consistently advocated the government step in and arrest anyone doing that same thing. The War On Drugs may be the most wrongheaded policy in America and it hurts many families by sending parents off to prison. I wish for your good health as well.
Rush on crack would still dwarf these other three mental midgets combined.
Hannity especially. When was the last time Hannity had an original thought? He's an embarrasment.
Spare me. Was Rush arrested or not?
Why not and don't cut and paste from Levin's article.
What happens if he has a dirty test?
Why can't he own a gun if wasn't arrested?
Was Tom Delay arrested?
Spare me. Was Rush arrested or not?
Why not and don't cut and paste from Levin's article.
What happens if he has a dirty test?
Why can't he own a gun if he wasn't arrested?
Was Tom Delay arrested?
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