My mother also suffers from chronic back pain (she has what's known as a degeneritive spine) and had serious trouble in the past convincing her former "pain doctor" to treat her. He knew what the problem was, and he knew her pain was genuine and debilitating, and he also knew that there was no danger that she would be abusing the particular pain treatments she required, which involved injections directly into her spine. But he would still routinely refuse to treat her, saying she was "too tense." Never mind that the main reason she was "tense" was because she was IN PAIN. It made no sense to me -- "I'm sorry, I can't give you your pain medication because you're clearly in too much pain."
They went round and round on this so often that it created great hostility in their relationship, to the point that she would become "tense" at the very idea of visiting his office, because she was afraid of him. And naturally, being "tense" with doctor-induced anxiety when she visited his office would lead to more denial of treatment, and the pain would become more unbearable, leading to still more tension.... I honestly thought she was going to end up in a wheelchair.
This went on for about two years before I convinced her that she needed to find a new doctor. Maybe one who wasn't a sadist.
She's doing OK now.
Anyway, I have relatives in Florida. I'll make sure they hear about this, if they haven't already. The governor should be getting a few more letters from constituents.
I sympathise and can see this whole thing happening. My wife lives with pain and depends upon daily doses pain killers. - Fortunately her pain is not yet as severe as Mr. Paey's and is relieved by non-narcotic medication. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
To write the piece, I basically read a whole bunch of different articles, some of which I've linked to (and they're pretty interesting reading). I don't think there are any "undisputed" facts. Paey says he's completely innocent of wrongdoing. The prosecutor would have you believe he's a one-man crime spree.
To stay completely on point, I guess it's not disputed that he actually had prescription medication. He was convicted of possession, trafficking, and fraud. The pills he had contained both the narcotic ingrediant and tylenol, totalling over the 28 grams which make it an automatic "trafficking" 25-year mandatory minimum sentence.
Paey and his family were surveilled for two months and he never sold any of the drugs. The prosecutor's sole "evidence" was that he didn't believe anyone could take "that many" pills. I don't know if the jury was convinced of that, or if they were just following the "letter of the law" about the 28 grams.
The fraud charge is more problematic -- the doctor at first verified all of the prescriptions, but when threatened with prosecution, testified that Paey forged them. I did read one article that said, originally, that the police told Paey he could cut a deal if he would testify against the doctor and that he refused, at which point the tactic was reversed. After reading everything, it's unclear to me whether Paey forged any prescriptions or not.
In any case, he wasn't selling the pills, just trying to control his own pain. I think it's ridiculous the medication is so tightly controlled and doctors are so fearful of the DEA that this situation arose in the first place. If he is guilty of anything in this mess, it's trying to get more medication for himself.
Nevertheless, his guilt or innocence is moot at this point, having been found guilty in a court of law. It's now a matter of the governor showing mercy. I focused my letter on the mandatory minimum aspect -- that a 25 year sentence for a disabled man who wasn't selling drugs is overly punitive and serves no purpose to society, and that he should be with his wife and children. He's already been in prison too long.
Here's a link to another article by John Tierny of the NY Times via the November Coalition, in which he talks about the prosecutor.
Just doing his job
Tierny dismantles the prosecutor's arguments and the prosecutor himself says "I'm not thrilled about this case, I'm only proud that I did my job as a prosecutor." Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
I'll write the Gov. and Commissioners. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
I have a theory that sometimes it's not so much conviction rates as they have so much time and trouble invested they don't want to look stupid -- they'd interviewed everyone, involved the DEA, travelled to New Jersey, and done months of surviellance -- I think after all that, they just feel it's impossible to drop the whole thing or they'd look like assholes, so they convince themselves more and more as it goes along, each action justifying all the previous ones. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
This case kind of reminds me of the Peter Reilly murder conviction. Reilly, a teenager convicted of killing his mother in the 70s, was basically brainwashed into making a false confession by the state police who were so convinced they had the right person that it caused a rift between the police and prosecutor's office for years when the conviction was overturned and the new prosecutor refused to retry the case. I happened to see the Reilly case profiled on one of the TV justice programs a day or so ago. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
