AUTHORITIES TARGET PSYCHIATRIST IN PRESCRIPTION DRUG-SALES CASE

NORFOLK - A local psychiatrist is the target of a criminal investigation
into vast amounts of painkillers prescribed to one of his patients, who was
sent to prison Wednesday for related crimes.

Dr. David W. Reid already has been punished by a state regulatory board.
But on Wednesday, officials disclosed in court that criminal charges could
be filed against him.

The doctor was to testify at the sentencing hearing of his former patient
Edward S. Baker. He backed out after learning of the case being built
against him by federal agents and prosecutors.

If Reid had been called to testify, he would have cited his Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination, his attorney said.

Baker, meanwhile, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after
pleading guilty to drug and weapons charges.

Court records show that Reid prescribed to Baker thousands of Valium
tablets and some 50,000 tablets of Dilaudid, often referred to as
"drugstore heroin," over a three-year period.

Both men maintain that Baker needed the medication to control a chronic
pain disorder. But the court records say that Baker had been selling some
of the tablets for $10 each.

Baker is a 48-year-old Norfolk native who had been a government attorney in
Pennsylvania when he suffered an accident causing extensive injuries to his
foot.

That, in turn, led to reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a chronic disorder that
causes shooting and burning pain throughout the body.

He spiraled into drug addiction, lost his law license and moved back to
Norfolk, where he lived on $1,500-a-month disability.

Reid, who practices in Norfolk, began seeing him in 1993.

Records show that the doctor increased dosages to Baker over the years, to
the point in 2002 when Reid was prescribing 750 Dilaudid tablets to Baker
every 15 days - eight times the normal dosage.

Baker claimed to have needed 50 Dilaudid tablets and 30 Valium pills a day
to control his pain and addiction.

The case was uncovered when an informant alerted authorities that Baker was
selling pills for $10 each from his apartment in the 400 block of Dundaff
St., in the Hague section of Norfolk. When police arrested him, they found
two handguns in the home, 370 Dilaudid tablets and 288 Valium pills.

Around the same time, a pharmacy alerted officials of the amount of
medication being prescribed to Baker.

The Virginia Board of Medicine in October fined Reid $5,000 and placed him
on indefinite probation as a result of its investigation. The board found
Reid's conduct "grossly careless."

After Wednesday's hearing, a federal prosecutor would not elaborate on the
status of the criminal investigation.