SANTOS GETS 16 YEARS IN PRISON

Doctor Sentenced For Illegally Prescribing Controlled Substances

GREENUP -- A former South Shore doctor found guilty last month of seven
counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances was sentenced
Thursday in Greenup Circuit Court to 16 years in prison.

Rodolfo Santos, 65, who was indicted in June on the seven counts, was
sentenced by Greenup Circuit Judge Lewis Nicholls to three years each on
two of the charges and two years each on the other five, all to run
consecutively, as the jury recommended. Each of the charges had a maximum
penalty of five years.

Santos entered an Alford plea Thursday to 11 separate counts of illegally
prescribing narcotic painkillers. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not
admit guilt, but acknowledges that there is sufficient evidence for a
conviction.

In a plea agreement with Greenup Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Duvall on
the second set of charges, on which he was indicted in November, Santos
agreed that the sentences on the 11 counts would run concurrently with the
sentences on the first seven counts.

Santos is the fifth doctor who practiced in Greenup and Lewis counties the
past few years to have been found guilty or pleaded guilty to similar
charges in state and federal courts.

Duvall had said Santos wrote prescriptions for more than 2.5 million pills
to more than 2,500 patients during a 17-month period beginning in 2001.
Those patients each paid $120 cash before receiving their prescriptions at
the Plaza Healthcare in South Shore, which Duvall called a "clearinghouse
for drugs."

Santos' medical license was suspended in June by the Kentucky Board of
Medical Licensure, which has stated that seven of Santos' patients have
died of apparent overdoses of controlled substances in the past two years.

Larry Bailey of Grayson, whose 35-year-old son Paul is one of the seven
patients who have died, spoke directly to Santos as he addressed the court
and asked Nicholls to give Santos maximum sentences.

Bailey said it was Santos' "lust and greed for money" that killed his son,
who had suffered a back injury and previously had been prescribed OxyContin
by a Grayson doctor. When the OxyContin made his son terribly ill, Paul
Bailey became a patient of Santos, who prescribed Lorcet painkillers and
Xanax anxiety relievers, Larry Bailey said.

Bailey's son entered a local drug rehabilitation program, but was so
addicted to the prescriptions from Santos, he could not stop taking them,
his father said.

Instead of getting help for his son, Bailey said Santos was "feeding his
addiction. You sir, are a phony, a fake and a quack and a disgrace to your
Hippocratic oath."

Defense attorney Michael Curtis later said he disagreed with Mr. Bailey's
statements.

"While we are extremely sorry for the loss of their son, Dr. Santos was not
responsible for his death. You can rest assured if he had been, they would
have charged him with wanton murder.

"The pills his son took could have come from numerous sources," Curtis
said. "If I was Mr. Bailey, I would be upset with the doctor who prescribed
OxyContin for his son."

Nicholls said he had considered conditional discharge and probation for
Santos, but to do so would depreciate the seriousness of the former
physician's actions. Nicholls said Santos will serve his term at the
Kentucky State Reformatory at LaGrange.

Duvall, who said he thought the 16-year sentence was appropriate, added
that he will object to Santos' parole when he becomes eligible in 38 or 39
months.

"These (former physicians) have been out there killing people and then
signing their death certificates," said Duvall, who added that Santos did
sign a death certificate for one of his patients who died of an overdose.

"Santos signed that the death was caused by cardio-respiratory failure,"
Duvall said. "Yes, the person's heart stopped and the person stopped
breathing."

Duvall said he took the second set of charges to a grand jury because "if
the left one won't get you, the right one will," adding "we tried the right
case."

Former physician David Procter, who owned the Plaza Healthcare where he,
Santos and three other former doctors practiced, has pleaded guilty in U.S.
District Court to one count of conspiracy and two counts of illegally
prescribing controlled substances. Procter also testified against Santos at
last month's trial.

Procter, who faces up to 151 months in prison, will be fined $250,000 when
he is sentenced Aug. 18 in Ashland by U.S. District Judge Henry R. Wilhoit Jr.

The other three doctors who have pleaded guilty pleas or been convicted of
prescription drug charges are Fortune Williams, Frederick Cohn and Steven
Snyder.