DOCTOR ACCUSED OF TRAFFICKING ILLEGAL DRUGS

HOUMA -- A Slidell doctor accused of illegal drug trafficking in the Houma
area was indicted by a Terrebonne Parish grand jury Thursday afternoon and
arrested this morning.

Walter Oliver Sanders Jr., 65, turned himself in to local authorities this
morning and was scheduled to be transported to the parish jail.

Once there, Sanders will be held in lieu of $600,000 bond. State District
Judge David Arceneaux also ordered Sanders to turn over his passport until
after he stands trial.

Sanders was indicted on eight counts of illegally prescribing drugs to
patients without an accepted medical need, said Terrebonne First Assistant
District Attorney Mark Rhodes.

If convicted, Sanders faces up to 30 years in jail.

Sanders' indictment comes after a two-year police investigation and a
one-year grand jury inquiry into allegations that the doctor was involved
with the appearance of large quantities of prescription drugs, such as the
time-release painkiller Oxycontin, ending up on local streets.

People who abuse the drug for its narcotic effect crush the capsules -- an
act that negates the time-release feature -- and ingest the painkiller
directly, sometimes by snorting.

Sanders was indicted for writing prescriptions for anywhere from 300 to 500
pills to eight different Houma patients who visited his medical practice.
Authorities have not released the patients' names. The street value of that
quantity of Oxycontin would exceed $5,000, authorities said.

Rhodes said Sanders actually provided prescriptions for hundreds of
Terrebonne citizens, but prosecutors only asked for indictments in those
eight cases so as not to be repetitive.

Rhodes said the grand-jury investigation revealed that Sanders only
accepted cash payments for his prescription-writing services. He allegedly
charged $200 per person.

Some patients testified that Sanders' waiting room looked like a circus
full of drug addicts, Rhodes said.

District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. said his office pursued an indictment
because he wanted to send a message that local officials will not tolerate
anyone flooding Houma's streets with drugs.

"This case was made possible by the overwhelming support of the local
medical community, who volunteered to review medical records and testify
that the prescriptions were not remotely close to accepted medical
practice," Waitz said. "We are extremely lucky to have such a group of
concerned professionals."

Sanders is also in trouble with New Orleans authorities.

He was arrested there in February and charged with possession of various
street drugs, including crack cocaine and marijuana. Sanders also had
$147,000 worth of cash and gold and a number of silver coins with an
undetermined value with him when apprehended, according to published reports.

Sanders is scheduled to stand trial on the New Orleans-charges in March.
This is not the first time that the Terrebonne investigation into Sanders
alleged drug trafficking has made headlines.

Sanders served 30 days at the parish jail last fall after a local judge
found him in contempt of court for failing to produce medical records
requested as part of the grand jury investigation by local prosecutors and
the state medical board.

Sanders lodged his own legal volley protesting the investigation earlier in
2002 when he filed a $30 million federal lawsuit against Rhodes and several
parish deputies alleging the grand jury inquiry was nothing more than a
fishing expedition.

The suit claims investigators threatened, harassed and manhandled Sanders'
patients, seized their medical records from pharmacies and badgered them
into making statements implicating him in a suspected
fake-prescription-writing scheme.

Sanders lost his medical license in October after the Louisiana State Board
of Medical Examiners pulled it.

The action prohibits him from practicing medicine anywhere in the state,
either by himself or in conjunction with another physician, and requires
him to remove his name from his office premises.