DOCTOR CONVICTED ON SEVEN DRUG COUNTS

Santos Could Get 16 Years; Procter Takes Plea Bargain

GREENUP -A Greenup County jury recommended a 16-year prison sentence for
Dr. Rodolfo Santos yesterday -- another stiff sentence for another
so-called "dirty doctor."

The jury deliberated four hours before convicting Santos, 65, on seven
counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances at a South Shore
clinic last year.

Earlier yesterday, the clinic's owner, Dr. David H. Procter, 52, pleaded
guilty in U.S. District Court in Ashland to conspiring with two former
office managers to illegally prescribe controlled substances. Prosecutors
recommended a 121-month sentence and a $250,000 fine for Procter.

Santos was the last of four former Procter doctors to either be convicted
or plead guilty to prescription-drug charges. Sentences have reached as
high as 20 years.

Defense attorney Michael Curtis said he expected the sentences to send a
"chill" through the local medical community, causing local doctors to
withhold pain pills from patients who need them. Clifford R. Duvall,
commonwealth attorney for Greenup and Lewis counties, disagreed.

The verdicts won't affect good doctors, he said, but "I get this settling
feeling that it will be a while now before the rest of the state looks at
Greenup County as the hydrocodone capital of the Bluegrass again."

Procter, 52, a Canadian who moved to South Shore in 1977, testified on
Friday against Santos after reaching a plea agreement with federal
prosecutors. He also is expected to testify in the trial of his alleged
co-conspirators, Nancy Jane Sadler, 39, of West Portsmouth, Ohio, and Mary
Katherine Dials, 36, of Stout, Ohio. That trial is scheduled to begin today.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Molloy said Procter's help could reduce his
prison term, according to federal sentencing guidelines, to 90 months, or
71/2 years.

Santos, 65, of Myersdale, Pa., was one of the last of 16 doctors hired to
work temporarily at Procter's Plaza Healthcare after November 1998, when
Procter said he suffered a head injury in a car wreck that left him unable
to treat patients.

In 1999, the state medical board accused Procter of having sexual contact
with three women patients. He denied the allegations, but surrendered his
license.

Three doctors -- Dr. Steven Snyder, Dr. Frederick Cohn and Dr. Fortune
Williams -- were indicted after leaving Procter's clinic, but Santos was
arrested on June 10 last year while driving to work in South Shore.

After yesterday's verdict, Santos' 14-year-old son, Anthony, left the
courtroom in tears followed by his mother, Donna.

Larry Bailey, 60, of Grayson, watched as they passed. His son, Paul Bailey,
35, was listed by investigators as one of seven people who might have died
of a drug-overdose after visiting Santos. The elder Bailey did not
celebrate the verdict.

"I feel sorry for his family," said Bailey, who attended every minute of
the eight-day trial. "They didn't deserve this. But my family didn't
deserve it, either."

Jury already convinced

State officials estimated that Santos wrote prescriptions for almost three
million units of controlled substances in 13 months at the clinic,
including 11,200 prescriptions for Lorcet, a popular pain-killer.

Santos declined comment, but Curtis described his client as upset. "But you
look at the total number of prescriptions -- especially Lorcet; 11,000
prescriptions in a year -- that was probably something he couldn't
overcome, but they didn't max him out, either."

The maximum sentence for seven Class D felonies would have been 35 years,
he said. Santos will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his
sentence.

Judge Lewis Nicholls allowed Santos to remain free on a $20,000 cash bond
and scheduled formal sentencing for May 22.

Jury foreman Carolyn Massie said the amount of Lorcet that Santos
prescribed and testimony that he gave paid informant Mary Reed a cocktail
of prescription drugs without any medical records last April helped
persuade the jury.

She said Procter's appearance on Friday -- in which he contradicted much of
Santos' testimony -- was not important to the jury.

"I think it benefitted him more than it did us," she said, referring to
Procter's plea agreement.

'That sound like a drug dealer?'

In a statement to federal prosecutors on April 13, Procter outlined the
roles of Sadler and Dials at the South Shore clinic while admitting he
traded pills for sex to two female patients.

He said Sadler and Dials contacted a stream of doctors seeking temporary
assignments, who came through his office.

Procter said Sadler told him Dr. Steven Snyder of Louisville left signed
prescription pads that she filled out so patients could get prescriptions
without seeing a doctor.

Sadler then "just basically" sold the prescription to the patient, he said.

Another doctor, Frederick Cohn of Albuquerque, N.M., who also has pleaded
guilty in federal court, also wrote prescriptions, but fell out with
Procter, he said.

"He wanted more money," Procter said. "He wanted this, he wanted different
perks and I did not buy out his contract, so he went out on his own."

Procter said Sadler, who was the clinic's office manager after the 1998 car
wreck, became his "gatekeeper" who accepted addicts as patients. "She
knew," Procter said.

He said Dials, who had started working for him in about 1996, "knew that I
wanted patients in there that would be easy to evaluate, easy to document,
and if they were pain-seeking, medication-type patients, then we knew that
once we started treating them, they would keep coming back."

In his closing statement yesterday, Curtis tried to show that while Procter
and his staff were urging his client to see more patients, Santos made some
patients -- including Reed -- wait four or five hours while he treated
other patients.

"Does that sound like a drug dealer?" Curtis asked.

Duvall, meanwhile, conceded that in secretly recorded tapes, Santos
appeared to spend time examining Reed before giving her the usual drug
"cocktail" of Lorcet 10, Xanax and Soma. It was because Santos knew the
clinic was under investigation, Duvall said.

"I submit to you that Dr. Santos knows how to pretend to practice
medicine," he said.

Santos still faces a separate 11-count indictment issued last November. No
trial date has been set for those charges.