DRUGGIST CHARGED IN DEATHS

Case linked to April arrest of physician

A former Coral Springs pharmacist was arrested at his home in a nudist
resort Friday, indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly doling out
thousands of painkillers, depressants and sleeping pills which may have
resulted in the deaths of at least four South Florida residents.

Donald Arneson's arrest was part of a sweeping 287-count indictment and
ties the former pharmacist to Barbara Mazzella, the Coral Springs doctor
suspected in as many as 12 South Florida deaths. Federal agents say
Mazzella, 61, arrested April 1 in a highly publicized raid, wrote the
prescriptions that Arneson filled.

Also indicted Friday was Mazzella's office assistant Barbara Garafola, 54,
who kept the books at Mazzella's nondescript office in a West Sample Road
strip mall. Prosecutors charge that Garafola, together with Mazzella,
submitted numerous false Medicare claims, collecting money for procedures
Mazzella never performed.

Together, the three ran one of the busiest pill mills in the nation,
federal agents said.

The 12 deaths the trio have been tied to -- patients who died of drug
overdoses or committed suicide -- are identified in the indictment by their
initials only.

Arneson, 57, was denied bail Friday morning and remains in federal custody,
facing 51 counts of illegally distributing controlled substances.

Mazzella, whose medical license was revoked in late May, has been in
Miami's federal detention center since she was first arrested in April. The
new indictment replaces the lesser charges she initially faced.

"It does not in any way affect her innocence," attorney Bruce Zimet said.
"I guess they're thinking if you throw enough stuff against the wall,
something will stick."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Nicholson, who will prosecute the case, was
in court Friday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

DEA agents said they began investigating Mazzella four years ago after
receiving complaints from local pharmacists about the volume of Mazzella's
prescriptions for powerful drugs including the narcotics Percocet and
Tuinal, and the depressants Valium and Seconal.

When drugstores stopped filling Mazzella's prescriptions, the government
says she recruited Arneson, who set up shop inside her office in January
1997. Arneson ran Don's Clinic Pharmacy, which stocked the drugs Mazzella
prescribed. Patients could walk in and pay $100 cash to receive a
prescription and could buy the pills at Arneson's shop.

The stakes are higher for both Mazzella and Arneson now that prosecutors
have tied the prescriptions to at least 12 deaths. If convicted, both
Mazzella and Arneson could spend life in prison.

According to the indictment, Arneson also stands to forfeit his home in
Pompano Beach home and his condominium unit at the nudist Paradise Lakes
Resort and Condominiums in Lutz, Fla., where he was arrested Friday.

Official records from the state Board of Pharmacy were not immediately
available Friday, but a staff member estimated Arneson earned his
pharmaceutical license in the mid-to late-1970s, based on his license number.