Stephen Schneider and Linda Schneider Trial - Day 1

Jury selection will be completed tomorrow morning with the attorneys' opening statements after the lunch break.

Stephen Schneider, a former doctor, and his wife, Linda Schneider, a Licensed Practical Nurse who managed their medical clinic, have been under house arrest for over a year. Booking photos courtesy: images.morris.com

(WICHITA, Kansas) - Two Years After Being Arrested Jury Selection Begins in Trial of "Pill Mill" Doc and Nurse Wife. (see: most recent indictment filed against Stephen and Linda Schneider).

Marianne Skolek

Jury selection is taking place today in a Federal Courthouse in Wichita, Kansas of Stephen Schneider, a former doctor, and his wife, Linda Schneider, a Licensed Practical Nurse who managed their medical clinic. They have been under house arrest for over a year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway said Stephen and Linda Schneider illegally prescribed painkillers that led to fatal overdoses of 68 patients. The couple is directly charged with contributing to the deaths of 21 people.

Defense lawyers say the clinic operated a complex practice caring for people who suffered from chronic pain and needed complicated schedules of prescriptions to treat them.

Approximately 100 potential jurors have been summoned to the federal courthouse in Wichita, after completing lengthy pre-trial questionnaires. Jury selection began today before U.S. District Judge Monti Belot. Besides being fair and impartial, Judge Belot has told potential jurors they also have to be decisive.

"This case has uprooted their lives, even though they're innocent," said Lawrence Williamson, one of the Schneiders' lawyers. "But we are confident that when a jury hears the full story, justice will prevail." Williamson asked one potential juror if he'd automatically turn against Dr. Schneider if he was told 68 patients died while in Schneider's care.

Prosecutors say Linda Schneider hired people to assist in health care who had no formal medical training, including family members and a man who was an illegal immigrant but who she claimed was her adopted son.

Linda Schneider is also charged with signing her husband's name on prescriptions when he wasn't in the office.

The same year the clinic opened, prosecutors say, patients began to die from overdoses of painkillers.

Prosecutors say the Schneider Clinic did not change its course of treatment and practices, despite the deaths.

The indictment claims the Schneider Clinic refilled prescriptions earlier and more often than they were suppose to and would continue to give dangerous mixes of narcotics amid signs that the drugs were making the patients worse.

Other doctors and hospitals noticed.

During the six years the Schneider clinic operated, prosecutors say, it billed more than $10 million for drugs and services. One potential juror was excused because he indicated in his questionnaire that he already formed opinions. Another juror was eliminated because she was very nervous and the judge didn't want her sitting on the jury. Another potential juror said she has a relative who works for the DEA and they have talked about the Schneider clinic. The woman admitted she was siding with the prosecution. Judge Belot asked the woman if she were a defendant, would she want a person like her on the jury. "Probably not," the woman answered.

The woman was excused. The next man called to the jury box said it was hard for him to get around the idea of 68 patient deaths allegedly linked to Dr. Schneider's clinic. "It's hard for me to say they're innocent when I know there were patients who died," he said. He was excused from serving on the jury.

Jury selection will be completed tomorrow morning with the attorneys' opening statements after the lunch break.

This article written as a voice for Heather M, age 28, died February 9, 2002.

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Salem-News.com Reporter Marianne Skolek, is an Activist for Victims of OxyContin throughout the United States and Canada. In July 2007, she testified against Purdue Pharma in Federal Court in Virginia at the sentencing of their three CEO's who pled guilty to charges of marketing OxyContin as less likely to be addictive or abused to physicians and patients. She also testified against Purdue Pharma at a Judiciary Hearing of the U.S. Senate in July 2007. Marianne works with government agencies and private attorneys in having a voice for her daughter Jill, who died in 2002 after being prescribed OxyContin, as well as the voice for scores of victims of OxyContin. She has been involved in her work for the past 7-1/2 years and is currently working on a book that exposes Purdue Pharma for their continued criminal marketing of OxyContin.

Marianne is a nurse having graduated in 1991 as president of her graduating class. She also has a Paralegal certification. Marianne served on a Community Service Board for the Courier News, a Gannet newspaper in NJ writing articles predominantly regarding AIDS patients and their emotional issues. She was awarded a Community Service Award in 1993 by the Hunterdon County, NJ HIV/AIDS Task Force in recognition of and appreciation for the donated time, energy and love in facilitating a Support Group for persons with HIV/AIDS.

oxydeaths.com/news_chilling.htm
nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html?
blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2007/07/sometimes_only_justice_can_rel.html
judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=2905&wit_id=6612
You can send Marianne an email at: mskolek@aol.com
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