PHYSICIAN INDICTED ON DRUG CHARGES

S. Dallas Doctor Has Denied Responsibility For Patient Deaths

A South Dallas pain-management physician who wrote prescriptions for
at least a dozen patients who later overdosed or suffered fatal
complications was indicted Friday on felony charges of dispensing
medicine without a valid reason. Prosecutors pledged that the 18-month
investigation that led to the three indictments against Dr. Daniel
Maynard is not over. More charges against the physician and other
suspects are possible, said District Attorney Bill Hill. "It's been a
long time coming. It took a lot more work than any of us anticipated,"
Mr. Hill said. "We're not finished yet." Neither Dr. Maynard nor his
attorney, Jim Rolfe, could be reached for comment Friday. In civil
court documents, he has denied responsibility for any of the deaths in
question.

The three charges handed down center on the case of a 44-year-old
Grand Prairie woman who died in January 2002. Dr. Maynard, 58, is
accused of prescribing her three different narcotics - methadone,
hydrocodone and Oxycodone - without a valid medical reason.

At the time of Janet Westmoreland's death, investigators found at
least eight prescriptions in her home.

Her relatives could not be reached for comment, but an attorney suing
Dr. Maynard for the family and almost two dozen other patients or
relatives of Dr. Maynard's patients welcomed the indictments.

"It's one step in a long journey to obtain justice for my clients,"
said Kay Van Wey. "Mr. Maynard placed profits, his own profits, over
the lives and health of his patients. ... He demonstrated a complete
indifference to his patients' lives and well-being."

Two of the charges carry punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a
fine of $10,000; the third charge has a maximum penalty of 10 years in
prison and a $10,000 fine. Attorneys for the doctor were making
arrangements late Friday for him to surrender and post the combined
$75,000 bail. Dr. Maynard's practice on Martin Luther King Boulevard
near Fair Park may have been small in size, but the sheer volume of
patients made him one of the busiest prescribers of narcotics in the
state, records show. No appointments His office staff took no
appointments, so patients, most of whom relied on Medicare/Medicaid to
pay their bills, typically began lining up before dawn to assure that
they got in the door. By the end of a busy day, as many as 150 to 200
patients had passed through his doors, authorities said. Besides the
charge of issuing prescriptions without a valid medical reason, court
records indicate that the investigation into Dr. Maynard has also
examined whether the doctor's actions contributed to the deaths of his
patients. The patients who died were both young and old and their
deaths all occurred in recent years, according to court records. Their
autopsies listed various causes of death, including drug overdoses,
toxic effects of mixed drugs and congestive heart failure.

According to state records for 2002, Dr. Maynard led the state in
prescriptions for the sedative diazepam and logged the second-highest
number of prescriptions for hydrocodone. In that year alone, he wrote
54,748 prescriptions.

After receiving prescriptions, patients typically lined up outside an
adjacent storefront pharmacy. That business was the largest dispenser
of 10-milligram diazepham in the state's Medicaid program for
low-income Texans in 2002. Home, office searched Authorities executed
a search warrant to his Lakewood home and South Dallas office in June
2003 after receiving several complaints from relatives of patients who
had overdosed from medication prescribed by him. His medical license
was suspended a short time later.

Mr. Hill declined to comment on the status of the investigation and
the likelihood that more-serious charges could still come. But he said
authorities continue to be interested in how those patients died.
"We're looking at the cause and effect of those prescriptions being
taken by some patients who ultimately died," he said.

Mary Johnson, whose daughter, Tracie Bond, overdosed from medications
prescribed by Dr. Maynard, welcomed the criminal charges announced
Friday. "He did wrong and my daughter suffered because of it," Ms.
Johnson said. "A few years in the penitentiary wouldn't hurt him.
.He was handing out pills like it was candy."

Ms. Bond, a mother of three who was on medication prescribed by Dr.
Maynard before she was paralyzed after having a one-car accident, was
found dead in her bedroom in 2002, an empty morphine bottle beside
her. Mr. Hill said the indictments serve notice on doctors who run
so-called "pill mills" - and not those who treated the millions of
Americans who rely upon these drugs to legitimately treat chronic pain
problems. "We feel like these drugs are proper and very helpful to
people who need them," Mr. Hill said. "But those who are prescribing
these drugs without a valid purpose - they better beware."

E-mail rtharp@dallasnews.com and teiserer@dallasnews.com CASE
DEVELOPMENTS June 10, 2003 - Six local and federal agencies raid the
office, bank and home of Dr. Daniel Maynard, a physician whose South
Dallas practice was linked in court records to the deaths of 11
patients. The documents accused him of prescribing narcotics without a
valid medical purpose and defrauding the state, Medicare and Medicaid
systems by charging for medical services that were never performed.

June 11, 2003 - The state freezes Medicaid reimbursements claimed by
Dr. Maynard. The federal government later freezes Dr. Maynard's
ability to receive Medicare reimbursements.

June 20, 2003 - The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners takes
emergency action to temporarily suspend the medical license of Dr.
Maynard. "The doctor's continuation in the practice of medicine would
constitute a continuing threat to the public welfare," the board
writes. Friday - After an 18-month investigation, Dr. Maynard is
indicted on felony charges of dispensing medicine without a valid
reason to Janet Westmoreland, a patient who died in January 2002. The
district attorney said more charges against the physician and other
suspects are possible.