2 DOCTORS SET FREE ON CASH BONDS

Pair Face Drug, Money Laundering Charges

LONDON -- A federal magistrate yesterday allowed two Paintsville-based
doctors arrested last week on drug-trafficking and money laundering charges
to be freed on cash bonds, despite warnings from prosecutors and court
investigators that both suspects posed flight risks.

U.S. Magistrate J.B. Johnson Jr. ruled there was enough evidence to hold
Frederick Cohn and Yakov Drabovskiy until a grand jury considers their
case. In the meantime, Johnson set conditional $25,000 cash bonds for each.

The decision appeared to delight Cohn's attorneys, one of whom, Martin
Pinales of Cincinnati, earlier offered to post "any'' amount of bond to
obtain his client's release.

Still wearing leg shackles, Cohn was hustled from the small courtroom to
the U.S. District Court clerk's office, where bond was posted.

"Are you shocked?'' asked Regena Triplett, a Pikeville attorney who also
represents Cohn.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West didn't reply when a reporter asked the
same question.

"We object to it,'' West said. "We said in court briefings that they posed
a risk of flight.

"That was our belief then. That's our belief now.''

Cohn, 69, lives in Albuquerque, N.M., and may return home. Drabovskiy was
restricted to the federal court system's Eastern District of Kentucky,
which includes Johnson County.

Johnson rejected West's concerns that Cohn might flee from Albuquerque to
nearby Mexico.

Defense attorneys, besides noting that Cohn and Drabovskiy had no prior
convictions, argued that their clients had known for at least five months
they were under federal scrutiny. If they wanted to run, they would be
gone, said Ben Hall of Pikeville, Drabovskiy's attorney.

As part of the conditional releases, Johnson also ordered both men to stop
practicing medicine and surrender their passports.

Drabovskiy, a Russian national, does not have a passport. Cohn's Kentucky
medical license was suspended last week, but he still is licensed in other
states.

The magistrate's order, in fact, left open the possibility that both
doctors could resume practicing medicine if they work for government
agencies, such as prisons.

West said his supervisors in the U.S. Attorney's office will decide whether
to appeal Johnson's bond decision.

Neither Cohn nor Drabovskiy, 52, testified yesterday at the four-hour
hearing. Both were arrested last Thursday when two dozen local, state and
federal law-enforcement officers invaded the office Cohn established last
year in a former Paintsville supermarket.

Complaints grew after large crowds of patients, mostly from outside Johnson
County and outside the state, swamped Cohn's office every weekday.
Drabovskiy, who entered the United States in 1990, was recruited by Cohn to
work in Paintsville two weeks after his office opened.

The state medical licensure board, in suspending Cohn's license, said there
was reason to suspect that it posed a hazard to his patients and the
general public. "There was nothing more there than a pill factory, sir,''
Kentucky State Police Det. John Blanton testified yesterday.

In the seven months between Aug. 7, 2000, when it opened, and Feb. 27, when
Cohn's medical and financial records were seized, his office generated
$995,000, mostly in cash payments, Internal Revenue Service agent Walter
Woosley testified yesterday.

At the same time, the two doctors were treating a patient every 3.5 minutes
and prescribing a total of 45,000 pills a day, five days a week, Blanton
testified.

First-time patients who were charged $100 sometimes were given receipts for
$65, the amount paid for later visits, he said.

Woosley said Cohn and Drabovskiy paid $2,500 a month in rent and had a
payroll of between $10,000 and $15,000 every two weeks. He said the two
doctors paid themselves about $3,000 a week, and each regularly took $100
or so "from the till.''

Cohn also paid his third wife, Ellen Landis, an Albuquerque museum curator,
$2,000 every two weeks, Woosley said, although he couldn't say what work
she did.

The money-laundering charge stems from Cohn's office billing the federal
government twice for the same visit by an undercover agent, Woosley said.

Investigators found about 300 blank prescription pads in the office,
already filled out for popular prescription drugs -- Lorset, Soma and Xanax
- -- that were unsigned, he said.

But Pinales pointed out that Cohn never signed the prescriptions before
seeing patients.

Nine undercover agents, posing as patients, were treated by the doctors,
Blanton said; all wore video or audio recorders.

Blanton, a veteran member of the state police's special drug unit, said he
recognized several patients as drug dealers. He also said one agent
reported seeing two patients at once in an examination room.

No undercover agents received physical examinations, Blanton said, although
he conceded under cross examination that Cohn required all patients to fill
out forms, outline their complaints and agree not to abuse drugs or "doctor
shop.'' Blanton also said Cohn told him he discontinued treating patients
who abused or were caught dealing drugs.

After his ruling, Johnson told West he understood the government's
position, but said he felt defense attorneys had "rebutted presumption.''