DOCTOR'S FATE NOW IS UP TO THE JURY

Prosecutors Contend That His Prescription Practices Were Fatal To Some Patients

ROANOKE - A federal jury in Roanoke is set to begin asking itself this
question today:

Was Roanoke physician Cecil Byron Knox what prosecutors portrayed him
as - a sort of "Dr. Feelgood" who liberally dispensed potent drugs to
addicts for no legitimate medical reason but with fatal results - or
was he the man portrayed by defense attorneys - an old-fashioned,
friendly practitioner from Norman Rockwell's America?

Settling the question could take days.

In seven weeks of testimony in a federal courtroom, prosecutors
alleged that Knox - who, with his long hair, jeans and sandals, looked
more hippie than physician in his clinic - ran a "pill mill" from his
cluttered office on Roanoke's Second Street, handing prescriptions to
known addicts and others who came to see him with stories of severe
pain. Knox's tendency to prescribe potent drugs contributed to the
deaths of seven patients, prosecutors alleged.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys finished their closing arguments in
U.S. District Court at 3 p.m. yesterday. Chief U.S. District Judge
Samuel Wilson then sent jurors home for the night, to return this
morning to begin deliberations.

In one year, Knox wrote prescriptions for $1.6 million worth of
OxyContin, according to testimony, becoming the nation's 19th leading
prescriber of the drug.

Defense attorneys, however, portrayed Knox as a throwback to an
earlier kind of doctoring, saying he spent lots of time with patients,
many of whom were in such severe pain that they couldn't get relief
from other doctors who barely had the time to examine them. Knox, they
said, was a sympathetic doctor who took on the kind of patients other
doc-tors wouldn't.

Many of Knox's patients sat in the courtroom during the entire trial
to offer support.

"He was a spend-time-with-you doctor," attorney John Lichtenstein, who
represents Knox's medical office, told jurors yesterday. "He was not a
six-minute doctor."

Knox faces 50 charges related to allegations that he prescribed
medicines, especially methadone and OxyContin, for no legitimate
medical reason. He and his office manager, Beverly Gale Boone, also
face 19 fraud, conspiracy and racketeering charges related to their
billing methods.

A third defendant, licensed counselor Willard Newbill James Jr., faces
five charges. Authorities allege Newbill paid Knox's office kickbacks
in return for patient referrals.

The bulk of the federal prosecutors' case, however, revolved around
Knox's free-handed philosophy of prescribing drugs. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald introduced evidence suggesting that seven of
Knox's patients died of overdoses or drug-related causes, while an
additional three people suffered serious physical harm.

Fitzgerald said Knox's liberal dispensing of painkillers was nearly
unprecedented. "This doctor is the World Series of OxyContin,"
Fitzgerald said.

Lichtenstein, though, likened Knox to the friendly doctors painted by
Norman Rockwell. He reminded jurors of testimony that many of Knox's
patients knew they had to lie about their pain to get prescriptions
from him, suggesting that Knox was an honest healer who was duped by
those he tried to help.

Lichtenstein said some of the patients given painkillers were also
taking illegal drugs like cocaine, a circumstance that should
exonerate Knox from responsibility for their deaths.

Because the jurors have to sift through seven weeks of testimony and
evidence and several boxes of documents, attorneys said a verdict
could be days away.