PHYSICIAN INDICTED ON MURDER CHARGE

WEST PALM BEACH -- A Jupiter physician was arrested and charged Friday with
racketeering, drug dealing and first-degree murder in the death of a
patient who overdosed on the controversial painkiller OxyContin,
prosecutors said.

Dr. Denis Deonarine, 56, appears to be the first doctor in Florida, and
possibly only the second in the nation, charged with murder in connection
with prescribing the opiate painkiller OxyContin, according to the Food and
Drug Administration, the drug's manufacturer and legal experts.

Two doctors, one in the Panhandle and another in California who was
originally charged with murder, face manslaughter charges; a Virginia man
who is not a doctor pleaded guilty this week to felony murder months after
injecting a partially paralyzed man with the drug.

The felony murder charge against Deonarine, which carries a sentence of
death or life in prison upon conviction, stems from the Feb. 8 death of
Michael Labzda, 21, of Jupiter, said Assistant State Attorney Barbara Burns.

"We're not attacking the medical community. We're not even attacking a
particular drug," Burns said. "What we're attacking is conduct so egregious
that it crosses the threshold from poor doctoring to criminal conduct."

Deonarine's attorney, Richard Lubin, called the murder charge "meritless,"
but said he hasn't seen the indictment.

Deonarine was in the Palm Beach County Jail late Friday, Lubin said,
suffering from pneumonia.

A grand jury indicted Deonarine and others on 80 counts, State Attorney
Barry Krischer said, but both he and Burns refused to give details of the
indictment.

The indictment remains sealed because not all of the accused are in
custody, Burns said.

In prior affidavits, investigators have alleged that Deonarine sold
prescriptions for cash and did not perform the physical exams or other
tests that would justify the medications and the doses he prescribed.

Prosecutors say three more of Deonarine's patients have overdosed on
OxyContin and died. But Friday's charges relate only to Labzda's death.

Labzda's autopsy report shows the Palm Beach Community College horticulture
student's blood contained very high levels of oxycodone, the active
ingredient in OxyContin, Lubin said. It also revealed he had taken high
doses of the tranquilizer alprazolam and had been drinking alcohol before
he died, Lubin said.

OxyContin is a powerful pain reliever that has become popular with drug
addicts because large doses produce a heroin-like high when crushed and
ingested. The drug slows the body's breathing reflex and is known to be
lethal if taken in high doses with depressants such as alcohol. Medical
experts have speculated that many of the dozens of OxyContin overdoses
nationwide were suicides.

State law allows someone to be charged with felony murder when someone dies
in the commission of a felony such as drug trafficking or when someone dies
from using an opiate drug that the suspect distributed illegally.

Because of Labzda's autopsy report, Lubin said he believes prosecutors will
try Deonarine on charges of felony murder while engaged in drug trafficking.

Deonarine also faces charges of defrauding health insurers with
illegitimate OxyContin prescriptions. Prosecutors say he prescribed the
drug for his office manager and later lover, Wayna McCollum.

Investigators from the state attorney's office and the FDA worked for five
months to build their case against Deonarine. The doctor has never been
disciplined by the state Board of Medicine.

Like California prosecutors who were unable to make OxyContin-related
murder charges stick in a high-profile case against a pain clinic doctor,
Palm Beach County prosecutors acknowledged it would be difficult to
convince a court that Deonarine was guilty of murder.

"It's a new concept. We don't know how it's going to play out," Burns said.

Lubin was quick to point out what he saw as potential problems with the
state's key victim.

"If someone abuses a drug that he's been prescribed and takes it with other
drugs and alcohol, all in violation of pain management agreements the
doctor has every patient execute, how is the doctor responsible for the
patient's death?" Lubin said.

Court records show Labzda had a history of drug possession.

Early last year, after being charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession
and possession of drug paraphernalia, Labzda pleaded guilty to the former
charge and was ordered to do 14 hours of community service. And last
December, the state attorney's office charged him with marijuana possession
in excess of 20 grams, a third-degree felony.

Labzda died a week before a scheduled hearing on the felony charge.

His family, which in an interview earlier this year refused to comment on
Labzda's drug use, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Deonarine,
Walgreens and Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin.

The lawsuit complains that Purdue Pharma marketed the drug "by making
misrepresentations or omissions regarding the appropriate uses, risks, and
safety of OxyContin" -- claims the drugmaker has denied.

Deonarine hasn't sold prescriptions or made money from the drug, Lubin said.

"To the extent Dr. Deonarine may have been a victim of misleading marketing
by the manufacturer that may have occurred, he truly believes, and he has
always believed, he has prescribed medicines when it was needed medically,"
he said.

The FDA approved the drug for treatment of moderate to severe pain in
patients with cancer and chronic pain.

On Wednesday, the FDA and Purdue Pharma announced that OxyContin's package
insert will now bear the FDA's strongest warning. And Purdue Pharma is
sending letters to doctors alerting them to misuse of its drug.