RUSH, PROSECUTORS REACH DEAL

Drug Charge To Be Dropped If Limbaugh Remains In Rehab

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh and prosecutors in the long-running
prescription drug case against him reached a deal Friday calling for the
only charge against the conservative commentator to be dropped without a
guilty plea if he continues treatment.

Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant filed Friday
charging him with fraud to conceal information to obtain
prescriptions, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach
County Jail. He and his attorney Roy Black left about an hour later,
after Limbaugh was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000
bail, Barbera said. Prosecutors' three-year investigation of Limbaugh
began after he publicly acknowledged being addicted to pain medication
and entered a rehabilitation program. They accused Limbaugh of "doctor
shopping," or illegally deceiving multiple doctors to receive
overlapping prescriptions, after learning that he received about 2,000
painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy
near his Palm Beach mansion.

Limbaugh, who pleaded not guilty Friday, has steadfastly denied doctor
shopping. Black said the charge will be dismissed in 18 months if
Limbaugh complies with court guidelines.

"Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no
doctor shopping, and we continue to hold this position," Black said in
an e-mailed statement. As a primary condition of the dismissal,
Limbaugh must continue to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen
for the past 2 1/2 years, Black said. Among other provisions, he also
has agreed to pay the state $30,000 to defray its investigative costs,
Black said.

Prosecutors did not immediately return a call for comment. They began
investigating Limbaugh in 2003 after the National Enquirer reported
his housekeeper's allegations that he had abused OxyContin and other
painkillers. He soon took a five-week leave from his radio show to
enter a rehabilitation program and acknowledged he had become addicted
to pain medication. He blamed it on severe back pain.

Before his own problems became public, Limbaugh had decried drug use
and abuse and mocked President Clinton for saying he had not inhaled
when he tried marijuana. He often made the case that drug crimes
deserve punishment. Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's medical records
after learning about the painkillers he had received at the Palm Beach
pharmacy. The investigation was held up as the prosecutors and Black
battled in court over whether the records were properly seized.