JUDGE CUTS PAIN DOCTOR'S SENTENCE IN HALF

Court Told Defendant Provided 'Break' In South Shore Prescription-Drug Case

ASHLAND - Although Dr. Steven Paris Snyder never testified against any of
four other former Greenup County doctors convicted on prescription-drug
charges, a federal judge yesterday granted a prosecutor's motion to cut an
agreed 70-month prison sentence in half.

Snyder, 52, of Louisville, was sentenced to nearly three years --35 months
-- in prison after Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Molloy told Judge Henry
Wilhoit that Snyder had been "open and candid" in providing investigators
with information about the flow of prescription pills from a South Shore
medical clinic in 1999 and 2000.

"That was our initial break in a case that really focused on Dr. David
Procter," the owner of a medical clinic in which all the convicted doctors
had practiced, Molloy told Wilhoit.

Snyder and his then-wife, Jodee Bowles Snyder, said they were both drug
addicts when he arrived at Procter's clinic in February 1999. In a court
document, Procter recalled a raucous August breakup in which he fired
Snyder, who "pulled a gun and pointed it at me and threatened to kill me."

Snyder then opened his own clinic in South Shore for about six months with
his wife serving as a nurse and receptionist. They returned to Louisville,
where investigators filed a search warrant that Molloy said touched off a
broader probe. Both filed separate plea agreements in April 2001.

Snyder pleaded guilty to federal drug and weapons charges involving 107
guns, which have been forfeited to the government. He is scheduled to begin
his prison term on July 15.

Jodee Bowles, 28, whom Snyder married in 1997, pleaded guilty to one count
of knowingly conspiring to acquire controlled substances by deception.
Bowles, now divorced from Snyder, received a probated six-month sentence.

Standing with his attorney, Bart Adams of Louisville, Snyder told Wilhoit
yesterday he was thankful for the judicial system, which had probably saved
his life. He also apologized to his former patients in Eastern Kentucky.

"I would change it if I could," he said.

Both Snyder and Bowles blamed their problems on drug addiction, but told
Wilhoit they are now drug-free.

"I just want another chance to get my life right," said Bowles, who has two
children and now lives with her grandfather in Indiana.

The judge appeared sympathetic.

"I don't know what it is about South Shore, Ky.," said Wilhoit, that has
attracted the kind of doctors who prey on drug addicts. "I'm certain you've
slowed it down, especially in South Shore."

Molloy told the judge that the problem extended across the Ohio River into
the Portsmouth area, but stopped short of saying the problems with drug
doctors have been solved. "We'll keep an eye on the area," he said.

The plea agreement says Snyder and his ex-wife were addicts themselves when
he began working for Procter in February 1999. At times, Snyder was taking
up to 30 Lorcet pain pills a day, records show.

Snyder was one of the first of about 15 physicians hired to work temporarily
at Procter's South Shore clinic after November 1998 when Procter claimed a
head injury in an auto accident left him unable to practice medicine.

Snyder had been scheduled to testify against Procter in U.S. District Court
in April before Procter himself struck a plea-agreement with prosecutors.
Procter is scheduled to be sentenced by Wilhoit on Aug. 18.