FEDS SEIZE CLINIC RECORDS

Search warrants issued to an agent for the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services show that numerous records and
documents for Community Wellness Center in New Bern were
seized Tuesday.

The 20-page warrant application included the name of the center's
owner, Dr. Michael Kermitt Nunn. No charges or federal
indictments have been filed against Nunn. Attempts to reach Nunn
for comment were unsuccessful.

The warrants -- filed in U.S. District Court, Eastern District in
Greenville -- were drawn after an investigation by the government
was launched in July 2004 but the warrants covered a period from
Jan. 1, 2000 through Tuesday.

Allegations in the warrants include over prescribing controlled
substances, billing for services not rendered/false claims, and
writing more than six prescriptions per month for a single patient,
which is not allowed under Medicare/Medicaid.

According to warrants, records taken from the 750 McCarthy Blvd.
facility included patient charts, prescription records, tax records,
billing records, controlled substance records and other records and
documents required to be maintained by a medical practitioner.

Agent Darrin M. Taylor said in his sworn affidavits that "the
physician prescribed or dispensed an inordinately large quantity of
controlled substances; large number of prescriptions were issued;
no physical examination (or very cursory examination) was given;
and the physician prescribed controlled substances on demand to
known illegal drug users."

Names of employees both past and present were on the warrants
after they spoke to federal investigators by phone or e-mail.

The warrant applicants were returned to the Greenville court and
made public late Wednesday afternoon.

Documents show that from Jan. 1, 2000 through April 30, 2004,
Nunn was paid $2,077,572 for bills submitted to Medicare. He
received $1,484,798 from Medicaid for bills he submitted. It was
estimated, according to the agent that Nunn saw between 100 and
140 patients a day.

One employee gave a sworn statement saying Nunn spent one to
three minutes with each patient. New Bern police and federal
agents including Taylor were at the medical facility from early
Tuesday morning until early evening.

Craven County tax records indicate Nunn purchased the McCarthy
Boulevard property in June 2001 for $860,000.

Nunn, 47, is licensed with the North Carolina Medical Board as
holding a full and unrestricted license for the center. Nunn's
specialty is listed as psychiatry.

The medical board states that Nunn graduated from the Wyoming
School of Osteopathic medicine in 1991, with graduation from Pitt
County Memorial Hospital in studies in both 1992 and 1995.

Tuesday as patients appeared to be entering the facility, no one
answered the telephone at the center.

New Bern police were in uniform guarding the front door of the
center as patients went in and out.

Wednesday morning a woman answering the telephone said Nunn
would not be in Wednesday afternoon.

The center offers osteopathic medicine to patients. Physicians who
practice osteopathic medicine are known as DOs rather than MDs.

According to the American Osteopathic Association the wellness
concept was developed more than 125 years ago. "The philosophy
focuses on the unity of all body parts."

DOs and MDs are both fully licensed physicians who are authorized
to prescribe medication and perform surgery.