AGENCE VLEEPTRON-PRESSE UPDATE OF BREAKING NEWS DING! DING! DING!
Time Magazine 1 November 1993
Fascist Oaf (right)
The Associated Press
Friday April 28 2006 19:40 USA East Coast
18 Months Drug Rehab
May Keep Fascist Oaf
Out Of Prison
by BRIAN SKOLOFF, The Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida USA -- Rush Limbaugh and prosecutors in the long-running prescription fraud case against him have reached a deal calling for the only charge against the conservative commentator to be dropped without a guilty plea if he continues treatment, his attorney said Friday.
Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant filed Friday charging him with fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Jail. He and his attorney Roy Black left about an hour later, after Limbaugh was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000 bail, Barbera said.
Prosecutors' three-year investigation of Limbaugh began after he publicly acknowledged being addicted to pain medication and entered a rehabilitation program. They accused Limbaugh of "doctor shopping," or illegally deceiving multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions, after learning that he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion.
Limbaugh, who pleaded not guilty Friday, has steadfastly denied doctor shopping. Black said the charge will be dismissed in 18 months if Limbaugh complies with court guidelines.
"Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no doctor shopping, and we continue to hold this position," Black said in an e-mailed statement.
Limbaugh spokesman Tony Knight said the commentator signed the agreement Thursday, and that it called for him to enter the not guilty plea. "It's not in the system moving toward trial. It was all a formality. It's a concluded deal," Knight said.
Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the state attorney's office, said prosecutors had not yet received the signed agreement.
"I am not disputing the facts, the conditions that Black represented, but until his client signed the agreement, we don't have a full agreement," Edmondson said. "I am sure it's just a timeline issue."
He refused to comment further.
As a primary condition of the dismissal, Limbaugh must continue to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen for the past 2 1/2 years, Black said. Among other provisions, he also has agreed to pay the state $30,000 to defray its investigative costs, Black said.
The warrant alleges that sometime between February and August 2003, Limbaugh withheld information from a medical practitioner from whom he sought to obtain a controlled substance or a prescription for a controlled substance.
Prosecutors began investigating Limbaugh in 2003 after the National Enquirer reported his housekeeper's allegations that he had abused OxyContin and other painkillers. He soon took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter a rehabilitation program and acknowledged he had become addicted to pain medication. He blamed it on severe back pain.
Before his own problems became public, Limbaugh had decried drug use and abuse and mocked President 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. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... 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," Limbaugh said on his short-lived television show on Oct. 5, 1995.
Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's medical records after learning about the painkillers he had received at the Palm Beach pharmacy. The investigation was held up as the prosecutors and Black battled in court over whether the records were properly seized.
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 also can cause profound hearing loss.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
posted by Vleeptron Dude | 20:16
4 Comments:
So they will drop the charges if he continues to go to rehab, eh ? Now that's not a normal procedure, that's just because he's a celeb, right ? Folks like you and me would not get this kind of deal in your part of the world, would we ? Of course not I reckon.
The Prez used to be a Cokehead (and a Pisshead) and one of his Propaganda Vox is on painkillers. Wow. Good grief. What's next ? Condi on Prozac? Rummy on Viagra ? With that stiff neck he's gotte be on something..
No bloody wonder the reputation of the US has dropped to sub-zero in the rest of the world. I for one would have a major depression if our politicians would behave like this.
I am just observing, and this one is so plain silly I can't even laugh about it. What a hypocrite bastard.
if i had pulled a stunt like that with Oxycontin and doctors' prescriptions, I would be inside state prison so fast it would make your head swim.
the daughter of the Governor of Florida pulled a funny with a forged Xanax prescription, got busted, got diverted to rehab, but in rehab was caught with some crack, and actually had to spend time in jail.
the Governor is Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush.
Rush is a Very Very Rich celeb. It may bankrupt him, but he has more Lawyer Power than the prosecutors.
Which is all as it should be. If I had that kind of money, I should be able to buy a Better Class of Justice than poor people. Just like a First Class seat on an airliner.
But i will confess this much -- the guy's a junkie, and as far as I'm concerned, that's just a real bad disease I am so happy I have managed to avoid. Cops shouldn't be bothering him, and prison isn't the place for him or for the daughter of the governor, or for any addict. He needs doctors and medical treatment.
When he gets cured of his opiate addiction, he will still be a creepy fascist jerk.
yup, good on ya mate
Drug addiction can be a really bad disease, and it does kill a substantial number of people. Thing is, obesity and other conditions related to it (heart conditions, several kinds of cancer, etc.) kill as well-- and by the hundreds of thousands yearly, far more than drug ODs do. It's worth noting that Limbaugh was morbidly obese before he started taking painkillers. Opiates often work as appetite suppressants. His "problem," assuming his treatment's handled correctly, may have added a decade to his lifespan.
Post a Comment
<< Home