DR. LATIMER ORDERED TO GIVE UP LICENSE

A former emergency room physician at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center
has been ordered to surrender his medical license for allegedly
prescribing narcotics in excessive amounts to patients, according to
sources.

Dr. James Latimer, a family practice physician in Madrid, has 30 days
to surrender his medical license and hand in his U.S. Drug enforcement
Administration (DEA) registration, which allows him to prescribe
drugs, according to sources.

Sources say Acting District Attorney Gary Miles and the DEA have been
investigating Latimer for more than a year.

Miles has said that the DEA investigation has been looking at
physicians who prescribe dangerous narcotics to individuals in such
large quantities that they can sell to drugs to addicts.

In some cases, physicians have allowed individuals on Medicaid to use
the taxpayer-financed health insurance program to pay for the
narcotics. The doctors have also billed Medicaid for the cost of
seeing the drug dealers.

"The physician that we are looking at right now, we believe was really
the building block for this type of activity in St. Lawrence County,
so we're very interested in getting his case resolved," said Miles.

If Latimer fails to surrender his license and DEA registration, he
could face felony criminal charges, according to sources.

According to the State Department of Health Web site, Latimer
graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston in 1979.
He did his residency at St. Margaret Memorial Hospital. He was license
to practice medicine in July 1982.

Latimer has had privileges at Canton-Potsdam Hospital and emergency
room privileges at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg.

Latimer is part of an investigation into doctors who prescribe
narcotics in excessive amounts to patients.

Miles said Monday that pharmacists and one or more "civilians" are
being investigated.

In May, police arrested Gouverneur physician Dr. Gail DeHart. She was
charged with the illegal distribution of controlled substances,
specifically the prescription painkiller OxyContin.

A month latter, Gouverneur surgeon Dr. Charles Locke closed his
office. He had been told to surrender his medical license of face
prosecution for allegedly over-prescribing narcotics.

The DEA and district attorney will hold a news conference at 1 p.m.
Tuesday to release further details of their investigation.