DOCTOR FACING FEDERAL DRUG CHARGES TESTIFIES

ABINGDON _ A Grundy doctor facing federal drug charges told a jury Tuesday
he prescribed narcotics to ease his patients' suffering.

Dr. Franklin J. Sutherland told jurors he prescribed the drugs to soothe
the suffering of patients with serious injuries, chronic pain and deep
depression from years of heavy labor in the heart of coal-mining country.

However, federal prosecutors contend some of his patients were
drug-dependent and that he ignored signs of their addiction.

Tuesday was the sixth day of trial for the doctor, who now faces 565 counts
of illegally prescribing diet drugs, tranquilizers and narcotic painkillers
without a legitimate medical purpose.

Prosecutors dropped 12 of the charges after some prescriptions that had
been deemed illegitimate by a federal expert witness turned out to have
been written by doctors other than Sutherland.

Prosecutors have accused Sutherland of ignoring signs of drug abuse in his
patients at a time when addiction to prescription medications, especially
morphine-like OxyContin, has been rising across the region.

During Tuesday's testimony, Sutherland admitted issuing 11 narcotics
prescriptions for two people he never examined.

He said he did so at the request of his friend Brian Elswick, a former
Buchanan County sheriff's deputy. Sutherland said Elswick told him that his
father and girlfriend were suffering various injuries or pain and needed
medication. "I trusted Brian completely," the doctor told the jury. "I made
a terrible mistake."

Elswick, who told the jury earlier that he had been an addict, paid for and
used the prescriptions himself, according to testimony.

The doctor defended other prescriptions he wrote for powerful painkillers,
claiming that despite some patients' histories of drug or alcohol abuse,
they still needed treatment for chronic pain. "I still had to keep in mind
that this is someone who has suffering, and I had to try to relieve the
pain as best I can," he said.

During cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out instances in which
patient tests showed nothing out of the ordinary and in which the doctor
continued to prescribe narcotics.

"Just because X-rays and MRIs are negative doesn't mean the patients do not
have pain," the doctor said, adding that migraine headaches don't appear on
magnetic resonance imaging scans.

Prosecutors also asked Sutherland why he continued to see patients who were
obtaining prescription narcotics, including OxyContin and Tylox, from other
doctors.

"There's not anything wrong with giving them a second or third chance ...
if I felt they had a legitimate reason for pain," Sutherland said. And,
defending his prescriptions of Lortab pills to an asthmatic 9-year-old,
Sutherland said it was the only drug that would safely relieve her
migraines and back pain without interfering with her asthma medications.

An expert federal witness, Abingdon internist Adam Steinberg testified
earlier that hydrocodone-based Lortab would hamper the child's breathing.
But Sutherland said that would happen only with large doses, and he
prescribed the smallest amount possible for the 130-pound girl.

The doctor said many of his patients suffered from severe, chronic pain and
that the medications he prescribed gave many the ability to live normal
lives. "I just tried to do the best job I could with the patients, to treat
them as best I knew how," Sutherland said.

If convicted, Sutherland could face multiple life prison sentences. The
trial is set to continue today at 9 a.m. with testimony from more defense
witnesses.