Related: Prescribing You a Zolot
You are going to need one:
"Mistrial in Needham doctor’s drug case; Juror tells of 11-1 vote to convict" by Maria Cramer | Globe Staff August 04, 2014
The jury in a federal case against a Needham doctor and a nurse practitioner accused of recklessly prescribing powerful opioids to drug addicts came back deadlocked Monday, a disheartening end to a grueling trial that highlighted the dilemma of treating patients grappling with addiction and chronic pain.
US District Judge Patti B. Saris declared a mistrial in the case against Joseph Zolot and the nurse practitioner, Lisa Pliner, who were accused of prescribing drugs such as Oxycodone and methadone to patients in violation of federal drug laws. Six of their patients died of overdoses between 2004 and 2006.
Two jurors said the panel was deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction.
“This really was just one person” who stubbornly refused to vote for conviction, said one of the jurors, who agreed to speak to the Globe at length on the condition of anonymity. “It was very frustrating. . . . A lot of people were very upset.” Unanimous agreement by the jurors was needed for a guilty finding.
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The jury pored over the evidence for seven days, sustained by sandwiches, pizza, and scant breaks. Deliberations became so intense that on Monday morning the lone holdout sent a note to Saris asking to be dismissed because she felt bullied by fellow jurors who she said seemed more interested in going home than deliberating.
The state will soon be investigating.
Saris instructed the jury to continue. Three hours later, they told her they were still deadlocked.
The trial, which lasted more than a month, came as the state faces a growing opioid abuse epidemic that is based largely on the abuse of prescription painkillers.
Heavily promoted in the Bo$ton Globe bu$ine$$ $ection, I might add.
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The juror who spoke at length to the Globe said that for the majority of the jury, the defendants’ guilt was clear: The evidence showed that Zolot was warned repeatedly by one of the victims’ loved ones that he was abusing the drugs. Jurors believed Zolot also ignored drug tests that showed his patients were abusing the painkillers.
“It was just the constant prescribing of medicine even after bad drug tests and people coming in and telling him that family members were having [addiction] issues,” the juror said. “We really didn’t have concrete evidence. It was all evidence that we put together. That’s the conclusion we came to.”
There was not "concrete" evidence?
Particularly damning to the defense, the juror said, was the death of Dennis Dillon, a 36-year-old so addicted to the Fentanyl patches he was supposed to wear on his skin that he cut them open instead so he could suck out the drug.
Shortly before he died, family members warned Zolot twice that Dillon’s addiction was becoming a major threat to his health, prosecutors said.
“We thought that one was a slam-dunk,” the juror said.
But the holdout refused to accept the conclusion of the majority, the juror said.
“She really stuck to her guns," the juror said. “She was very adamant right from the get-go. . . . She just kept saying, ‘I have reasonable doubt.’ But she didn’t have any good answers.”
Maybe the lack of "concrete" evidence?
The Globe could not verify the identity of the holdout juror. But Monday morning, with the jury out of the courtroom, Saris discussed the note the holdout sent her with the lawyers, who said they were concerned by her suggestion that jurors were compromising their votes in order to end deliberations.
“She’s claiming that they’re not voting their conscience, that they’re voting more to get this case over with,” said Michael J. Crawley, one of the prosecutors, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
One angry.... woman?
Cooper moved for a mistrial, but Saris instructed the jury to continue deliberating. However, three hours later, the judge declared a mistrial.
The juror who spoke to the Globe denied that the jury wanted to leave....
Hey, look, it's AmeriKan ju$tice! Just give the government the verdict it wants and let's get outta here!
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The government will retry. After all, it is not their money.
That poor woman must read this blog, for if the government is shit you must acquit! Case closed!
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Holdout in Needham doctor’s case told judge of bullying; Unusual letter details conflict in drug trial" by Maria Cramer | Globe Staff August 06, 2014
Shortly before a mistrial was declared in the federal case against a Needham doctor accused of recklessly prescribing powerful opioids, the lone jury holdout complained that she felt so bullied by the other jurors she wanted to be removed from the panel.
In plain, unvarnished language, the female juror wrote Judge Patti B. Saris that the stress of deliberating against 11 other jurors who wanted to convict the doctor was hurting her health and mental well-being.
“One of the jurors started yelling at me . . . and I left the courthouse thinking that I would rather break a toe than spend another day stuck in a room with the other jurors,” she wrote in a letter dated Aug. 4. “Whenever anyone gets irritated it does seem like I have become the scapegoat.”
The letter, which was sent to Saris three hours before the jury told her they were hopelessly deadlocked, provided an unusual glimpse into the insights of a person rarely heard from — the lone holdout in a high-stakes criminal case.
The deadlock frustrated jurors, who had spent seven days poring over evidence in a case that stretched over five weeks and dismayed the relatives of the six people who prosecutors said died after overdosing on painkillers prescribed by Dr. Joseph Zolot and his nurse practitioner, Lisa Pliner.
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz has said her office intends to pursue a second trial, but defense attorneys said the deadlock indicates how hard it could be to convince 12 jurors that a crime occurred....
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