REPRIEVE ON A JUDGE'S ERROR

The Reprieve May Spare Chronic Pain Patient Richard Paey An Automatic
25-Year Prison Term For Drug Trafficking. His Attorney Hopes To Avoid A New
Trial.

NEW PORT RICHEY -- A chronic pain patient who faced a minimum of 25 years
in prison for drug trafficking -- he wrote fraudulent prescriptions to feed
his addiction to medications -- won a reprieve Friday when a judge ordered
a new trial.

Richard Paey's trial in early July was marred by legal error, Senior Judge
Robert Beach ruled.

The error: Judge Beach's.

Beach ruled that he had failed to follow the law when he allowed the trial
to proceed after jury selection despite a psychologist's testimony that
Paey was incompetent.

By law, Beach should have stopped the proceedings immediately and summoned
two mental health experts to evaluate Paey, 43, of Hudson. Then the judge
should have conducted a full-blown competency hearing.

Instead, Beach rejected the psychologist's testimony after hearing from
Paey's two doctors. The judge ruled that Paey, who nodded off during
portions of jury selection, was malingering and possibly overmedicating to
create an appearance of incompetence.

The judge's ruling on Friday provided Paey with the only legal way out of a
minimum mandatory 25-year prison sentence.

A jury convicted Paey of eight counts of trafficking in oxycodone. Equally
significant was that Paey had obtained more than 28 grams, about 1 ounce,
of oxycodone illegally. That pushed him into Florida's toughest sentencing
category for drug traffickers -- even though there is no evidence that Paey
ever sold painkillers to anyone else.

Paey, who earned an Ivy League law degree, became hooked on painkillers
after botched back surgery in the mid 1980s. When he couldn't find doctors
to write high-dosage prescriptions, he turned to a copy machine.
Prosecutors say Paey used fraudulent prescriptions to obtain more than
1,000 pills from local pharmacies.

On Friday, a bailiff brought Paey, who also suffers from multiple
sclerosis, into the courtroom in a wheelchair. Paey now has a morphine pump
hooked into his stomach to deaden his pain.

After ordering a new trial, Judge Beach set Paey's bail at $1-million.
Defense attorney Bob Attridge said the goal now is to avoid another trial,
which would again expose Paey to an automatic 25-year sentence.

"We'll try to get with the state and see if something can be worked out
prior to trial," Attridge said. "It's obvious that Richard is a chronic
pain patient who doesn't deserve 25 years in prison."

Before trial, Paey rejected several plea bargain offers from prosecutors.
One offer would have allowed Paey to serve house arrest and probation and
avoid prison altogether.

Assistant State Attorney Scott Andringa said Friday that prosecutors would
seek to retry Paey.