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Rush Limbaugh Arrested on Prescription Drug Charges
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/u...&en=71ea39268baa51c2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Published: April 28, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 29 (AP) — Rush Limbaugh was arrested today on prescription drug charges, with his lawyer saying he has reached a deal with prosecutors that will eventually see the charges dismissed if he continues treatment for drug addiction.
The subject of a three-year investigation by prosecutors, Mr. Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant charging him with fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Jail.
The 55-year-old conservative radio commentator came into the jail about 4 p.m. with his lawyer, Roy Black, and left an hour later after he was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000 bail, Ms. Barbera said.
"He just kind of came in and he left," Ms. Barbera said.
Mr. Black said his client and prosecutors had reached a settlement on a charge of doctor shopping filed today by the local State Attorney's Office, which Mr. Black said would be dismissed in 18 months if Mr. Limbaugh complied with court guidelines.
As a primary condition of the dismissal, Mr. Limbaugh must continue to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen for the last two and a half years, Mr. Black said.
Mr. Limbaugh entered a plea of not guilty in court today on the charge and Mr. Black maintained his client's innocence.
"Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no doctor shopping, and we continue to hold this position," Mr. Black said in an e-mailed statement. Doctor shopping is when a patient illegally deceives multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions.
According to Mr. Black, Mr. Limbaugh also has agreed to make a $30,000 payment to the state to defray the public cost of the investigation. The agreement also provides that he must refrain from violating the law in the next 18 months, must pay $30 a month for the cost of supervision and comply with other similar provisions of the agreement.
Prosecutors did not immediately return a call for comment.
They began investigating Mr. Limbaugh in 2003 after the National Enquirer reported his housekeeper's accusations. He took a five-week leave from his radio program to enter a rehabilitation program and acknowledged he had become addicted to pain medication. He blamed severe back pain for his prescription drug abuse.
Prosecutors seized Mr. Limbaugh's records after learning that he had received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his house in Palm Beach. The investigation was held up as the prosecutors and Mr. Black battled in court over whether the records had been properly seized.
Mr. Limbaugh reported five years ago that he had lost most of his hearing because of an autoimmune inner-ear disease. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull to restore his hearing. But research shows that abusing opiate-based painkillers can also cause profound hearing loss.
Before his own problems became public, Mr. Limbaugh had decried drug use and abuse and had mocked President Bill Clinton for saying he had not inhaled when he tried marijuana. He often made the case that drug crimes deserve punishment.
"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country," Mr. Limbaugh said on his short-lived television program on Oct. 5, 1995. "And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs."
He added, "And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."
On the same show, he commented that the statistics that show blacks go to prison more often than whites for the same drug offenses only illustrated that "too many whites are getting away with drug use."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/u...&en=71ea39268baa51c2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Published: April 28, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 29 (AP) — Rush Limbaugh was arrested today on prescription drug charges, with his lawyer saying he has reached a deal with prosecutors that will eventually see the charges dismissed if he continues treatment for drug addiction.
The subject of a three-year investigation by prosecutors, Mr. Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant charging him with fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Jail.
The 55-year-old conservative radio commentator came into the jail about 4 p.m. with his lawyer, Roy Black, and left an hour later after he was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000 bail, Ms. Barbera said.
"He just kind of came in and he left," Ms. Barbera said.
Mr. Black said his client and prosecutors had reached a settlement on a charge of doctor shopping filed today by the local State Attorney's Office, which Mr. Black said would be dismissed in 18 months if Mr. Limbaugh complied with court guidelines.
As a primary condition of the dismissal, Mr. Limbaugh must continue to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen for the last two and a half years, Mr. Black said.
Mr. Limbaugh entered a plea of not guilty in court today on the charge and Mr. Black maintained his client's innocence.
"Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no doctor shopping, and we continue to hold this position," Mr. Black said in an e-mailed statement. Doctor shopping is when a patient illegally deceives multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions.
According to Mr. Black, Mr. Limbaugh also has agreed to make a $30,000 payment to the state to defray the public cost of the investigation. The agreement also provides that he must refrain from violating the law in the next 18 months, must pay $30 a month for the cost of supervision and comply with other similar provisions of the agreement.
Prosecutors did not immediately return a call for comment.
They began investigating Mr. Limbaugh in 2003 after the National Enquirer reported his housekeeper's accusations. He took a five-week leave from his radio program to enter a rehabilitation program and acknowledged he had become addicted to pain medication. He blamed severe back pain for his prescription drug abuse.
Prosecutors seized Mr. Limbaugh's records after learning that he had received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his house in Palm Beach. The investigation was held up as the prosecutors and Mr. Black battled in court over whether the records had been properly seized.
Mr. Limbaugh reported five years ago that he had lost most of his hearing because of an autoimmune inner-ear disease. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull to restore his hearing. But research shows that abusing opiate-based painkillers can also cause profound hearing loss.
Before his own problems became public, Mr. Limbaugh had decried drug use and abuse and had mocked President Bill Clinton for saying he had not inhaled when he tried marijuana. He often made the case that drug crimes deserve punishment.
"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country," Mr. Limbaugh said on his short-lived television program on Oct. 5, 1995. "And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs."
He added, "And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."
On the same show, he commented that the statistics that show blacks go to prison more often than whites for the same drug offenses only illustrated that "too many whites are getting away with drug use."
