DOCTORS CONVICTED IN NORTH MYRTLE BEACH OXYCONTIN CASE

FLORENCE -- Three former physicians were convicted Monday of illegal drug
distribution, money laundering and criminal conspiracy in what authorities
say they believe to be the largest prosecution of an OxyContin "pill mill"
in state history.

A jury deliberated Monday before delivering guilty verdicts against Drs.
Ricardo Alerre, Deborah Bordeaux and Michael Jackson, all former employees
of the Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center in North Myrtle Beach.

Alerre, Bordeaux and Jackson were the final defendants to be convicted on
drug and money laundering charges connected to a multi-million dollar
illegal narcotics ring that operated behind the facade of the pain clinic.

The clinic's owner and alleged leader of the illegal conspiracy,
45-year-old David Michael Woodward opted to plead guilty to conspiracy to
possess with intent to distribute Schedule II controlled substances
(Oxycodone), conspiracy to launder money and health care fraud rather than
face trial.

Former clinic physicians Deborah Sutherland, 52; Thomas P. Devlin, 60;
Venkata Pulivarthi, 42, also pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against
Alerre, Bordeaux and Jackson.

In all, a total of eight doctors, three employees and 20 patients of the
Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center were convicted in connection
with a 93-count federal indictment handed down late last year.

"I was very pleased with the verdicts and the entire outcome of this
investigation," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William E. Day II of the
Florence office, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Debbie Barbier and William Witherspoon of the Columbia office. "We've
successfully dismantled a huge illegal drug organization. We've put them
out of business."

The government's successful prosecution of the former pain clinic
physicians and employees was the result of an extensive investigation by a
task force made up of agents representing the Drug Enforcement
Administration-Diversion Division, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services and several sheriff's offices
throughout the state.

The doctors charged in the federal indictment all worked at the
Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center in Myrtle Beach at some point
between 1997 until the time it closed in June 2001.

During their time of employment there, the doctors saw hundreds of patients
each week and prescribed a wide range of Schedule II and III controlled
substances which were not medically necessary.

During the trial, former patients of the clinic testified that the doctors
there gave little to no physical examination before prescribing large
amounts of heavy narcotic painkillers such as Hydrocodone, Lortab, Valium,
Xanax and Oxycodone in the form of OxyContin.

Jackson and some of the other doctors named in the indictment also admitted
during trial that they sometimes met with more than one patient - a
practice known as "fast-tracking" - in an effort to increase the number of
patients seen each day and the clinic's revenue. Some of the defendants
also admitted to signing blank prescriptions on occasion in violation of
DEA regulations and federal law.

OxyContin contains a large amount of active ingredient compared to other
narcotic products. It is said to produce effects similar to those of heroin
when used improperly and is sometimes referred to as "poor man's heroin"
despite the high price it commands at the street level.

A former patient of the clinic testified during trial that the pain
center's doctors prescribed him large amounts of OxyContin, which he turned
around and sold on the street for anywhere between $10 and $75 a pill.

Each of the physicians convicted in connection with the Comprehensive Care
and Pain Management Center case face at least 20 years to life in prison.
Individual sentencing hearings will be set after a Department of Probation
completes a pre-sentencing investigation and report for each of the defendants.