'THIS PLACE OUGHT TO BE H-BOMBED'

Doctor Testifies About Clinic's 'Patients'

GREENUP - A doctor at a now-defunct South Shore clinic told investigators
last year that 100 percent of his patients were prescription-drug addicts,
a prosecutor said yesterday.

Dr. Rodolfo Santos, one of the last of a series of physicians to work at
the Plaza Healthcare clinic, said that if the state medical licensure board
"came here and looked, they would agree that this place ought to be
H-bombed," Commonwealth's Attorney Clifford Duvall told a Greenup County jury.

Santos, 65, of Myersdale, Pa., told investigators he was educating his
patients and deserved a medal, Duvall said. What he got, however, was indicted.

Santos was arrested and his Kentucky physician's license suspended last
July after state and federal investigators reported seven of his patients
had died in the previous year, allegedly from drug overdoses.

He was charged with seven felony counts of prescribing a controlled
substance for non-medical purposes. Each count carries a maximum 5-year
prison term.

Duvall told the jury yesterday the indictments were based on evidence
collected during two office visits by an undercover informant, Mary Reed of
South Shore.

A regional drug task force and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
officer taped the visits, Duvall said. The state medical licensure board
also pulled 18 patient files from the clinic. In some cases, no files were
found for patients who got prescriptions, Duvall said.

"You're going to get a real education," he told the jury.

The office accepted only cash payments of $120 and $80, he said. "Your
insurance was not worth a dime there," Duvall said.

During Reed's two trips, on April 23, 2002, and May 23, 2002, Santos
accepted X-rays that belonged to a male Ohio prison inmate; "coached" her
on her pain symptoms; and prescribed a same "cocktail" of controlled
substances -- a pain killer, a tranquilizer and a muscle relaxant -- Duvall
said.

At one point, Santos warned Reed that "pain pills are killers," told her
she would get hooked on narcotics and said there had already been five
deaths from overdoses. But then he asked her: "Do you want narcotics?"

Santos' attorney, Mike Curtis of Ashland, said he will give his opening
statement when the trial resumes at 11 a.m. today.

Three other doctors who worked at various times at the same clinic have
been indicted on drug charges since they left the clinic. All three, Dr.
Steven Snyder of Louisville, Dr. Frederick Cohn of Albuquerque and Dr.
Fortune Williams of Baltimore, have either pleaded guilty or been convicted
in federal or state courts.

The clinic's owner, Dr. David H. Procter, and two office managers,
meanwhile, have been indicted on federal prescription-drug conspiracy
charges and are scheduled for trial April 28. Santos is the only other
physician accused of illegal acts while seeing patients (Duvall called them
"customers") at Procter's clinic.

Other doctors were assigned to the clinic by temp agencies, but Santos came
to Kentucky "at the bidding of Dr. Procter or Kathy Dials," an office
manager scheduled to stand trial with Procter, Duvall said.

Evidence will show that, although Procter had surrendered his license, "he
held such control of that clinic that he decided what patients were seen,"
Duvall said.

When licensure board investigator Eric Tout questioned Procter about his
presence at the clinic, he was told, "I just bring in the mail," Duvall said.

But tapes will show Procter "was the gatekeeper" and opened the gate for
Reed while investigators closed in on his clinic and Santos, he said.

"Things were getting hot," Duvall said. "But they made an error when they
let Mary Reed through the gate."