GRUNDY DOCTOR FOUND GUILTY IN PRESCRIPTION DRUG CASE

ABINGDON - A Grundy doctor faces multiple life prison terms after a jury
convicted him Friday of writing hundreds of drug prescriptions to
apparently addicted patients.

After three days of deliberating, a federal jury found Dr. Franklin J.
Sutherland, 46, guilty of 430 counts of prescribing narcotics without
legitimate medical purpose.

The jury acquitted him of 135 of the 565 counts in the indictment. He was
charged with prescribing high-powered pain pills, including morphine-like
OxyContin.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors portrayed Sutherland as a sophisticated
drug dealer, but defense attorneys said he was a good-hearted doctor who
tried to ease his patients' pain.

Defense attorney Tom Dillard said he plans to file an appeal after
Sutherland's sentencing hearing, set for Sept. 10.

"We still believe Dr. Sutherland, that what he did he did out of compassion
and caring for his patients," Dillard said. "We hope to vindicate him on
appeal."

Friday was the ninth day of the trial, which prosecutors said was the
largest of its kind in the region in terms of the number of counts involved.

In addition to multiple life prison terms, the doctor could face millions
of dollars in fines when sentenced for illegally distributing nearly 12,000
OxyContin, Tylox and other narcotic pills. Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy
Ramseyer said he was pleased with the verdict.

The jury spent nearly 17 hours in deliberations.

"It was a pretty decisive decision," he said. "I thought the jury (members)
really were conscientious about their job and took it very seriously."

Ramseyer said the verdict was a message to doctors who would perpetuate the
region's rising rate of addiction to prescription drugs. "With pills, it's
just not like cocaine or marijuana," he said. "They can't get onto the
street unless doctors are prescribing them."

More than three dozen Southwest Virginians have died in the past thee years
of OxyContin overdoses, authorities have said.

"So many people are affected by (the abuse of) these pills in Southwest
Virginia," Ramseyer said. "It's hurting people who have a legitimate need
for these medications."

During trial testimony, an expert witness, Abingdon internist Adam
Steinberg, said Sutherland had no legitimate medical reason to prescribe
narcotics month after month to certain patients. Steinberg said normal
results from lab tests, X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging scans belied
some patients' complaints of chronic or severe pain. He said it should have
been clear to Sutherland that the patients were faking to obtain drugs to
sell or abuse. Patients who demanded brand-name drugs, obtained pills from
multiple doctors and refused to see specialists or undertake physical
therapy all were probable addicts, Steinberg said.

One of Sutherland's patients, a former Buchanan County sheriff's deputy,
told the jury early in the trial that his drug addiction caused him to lose
his job and his fiancee.

Sutherland told the jury he truly believed his patients had been suffering
when he prescribed the drugs. Many had been in coal-mining or automobile
accidents and had legitimate cause for pain, he said.

"We do respect the jury's verdict," said defense attorney Dillard. "But
we're disappointed."