Series: Part 2 Of 3

DR. TALLEY PRO AND CON, A SPECIAL REPORT

PRO

ROBERTSDALE, Ala. - Even after 12 surgeries on his back, Richard Bailey
says he can get around fine most days "thanks to Dr. Talley."

Bailey, 58, started seeing Dr. Joseph Talley about 10 years ago because of
the pain caused from several back surgeries. Bailey was living in the
Gastonia area at the time, and a friend told him that Dr. Talley might be
able to help him manage his pain.

Bailey injured his back about a decade ago in an accident. He now has two
steel rods that run up both sides of his spine.

"On my first visit to Dr. Talley, he did a thorough examination," Bailey
said. "I have scars all over me from the surgeries. Dr. Talley told me, 'I
will give you a week's supply of pain medication until I can get your
records and you can come back to see me.'"

Bailey said he returned in a week and Dr. Talley started him on pain
management medication.

Three years ago, Bailey moved to Alabama. He sees a local doctor there who
stays in touch with Dr. Talley so he can continue getting pain medication
he says is necessary for his survival. Bailey said Dr. Talley made him come
back to Cleveland County twice a year for office visits.

Bailey said Dr. Talley urged him to find a doctor in Alabama to manage his
pain, but he has had trouble finding one.

Now that Dr. Talley can no longer write prescriptions for narcotics, Bailey
said his only option for pain management will be a VA hospital that is 90
miles away from his home in Robertsdale.

He said he has about three weeks worth of pain medication left. Bailey
takes Loracet and uses Stadol nose spray for pain.

"I've tried every doctor around here and no one is willing to give me
anything for pain," Bailey said. "They say they can't get by with it.
Without something for the daily pain, I can't function."

Bailey said he understands that a drug addict can lie to a doctor to get
what he wants.

"Most people with real problems have medical records to back it up," he
said. "The people like me have to suffer because of what the drug addicts
have done.

"Dr. Talley told me that if he ever found out that I was also getting pain
medication from another doctor that he would stop treating me," he said.

Bailey said the past few weeks have been difficult while trying to find a
new doctor.

"I know I'm not the only one in this position who saw Dr. Talley," he said.
"I guess I am lucky that I can try the VA hospital."

CON

SHELBY - The night before Ray Harris killed himself he was stretched out on
the couch, sick and unable to go to his job as an electrician at Copeland Corp.

His wife, Tammy, said a gunshot woke her at 4:50 that morning. She went
into the living room of their home in Rutherford County and found her
husband dead. Mrs. Harris said he shot himself in the head.

Their 17-month-old son, Victor, was asleep in the next room, undisturbed by
the noise.

Mrs. Harris believes that her husband would be alive today if he had never
met Dr. Joseph Talley.

"I know Dr. Talley did not pull the trigger," Mrs. Harris said. "But my
husband was a good Christian. He did not believe in suicide."

Mrs. Harris blames the combination and amount of tranquilizers and
painkillers that Dr. Talley had prescribed for her husband that eventually
drove him to take his own life.

Ray Harris became a patient of Dr. Talley's in 1989, according to Mrs.
Harris. She said Ray had split with his first wife, and was having "trouble
with his nerves."

"Somebody told him about Dr. Talley," she said. "He was having panic
attacks. He was told that Dr. Talley would be able to treat him."

Mrs. Harris said Dr. Talley treated Ray for depression and panic attacks.
He prescribed Xanax.

During the last two years of Ray's life he had prescriptions for Xanax,
Prevacid (for stomach acid), Prozac, Wellbutrin and Oxycodone (Vicodin).
All of the prescriptions - except the Vicodin - had refills left on them
when Ray died.

Mrs. Harris said Ray's drinking contributed to his problems with the
medication.

"I told Dr. Talley that Ray was drinking and taking the pills," she said.
"But Dr. Talley never said anything to him about it. He continued to
prescribe pills."

Mrs. Harris remembers her husband as an easy-going, happy man who loved his
young son, and his daughter from his first marriage.

He was the type of person that "everybody liked," she said.

The couple spent their free time raising horses and participating in
rodeos. Ray team roped and judged some rodeo competitions. Mrs. Harris ran
the barrels.

That is where the couple met - at a rodeo. They had been married six years
when Ray died.

Mrs. Harris said that life with Ray was difficult when he drank.

"He was Jekyll and Hyde," she said. "He would have panic attacks and start
shaking. He had to take the Xanax. He was addicted to it. You could tell he
was on medication. The last year or so it had started to interfere with his
work."

Mrs. Harris said she, too, saw Dr. Talley as a patient. She and her husband
both saw Dr. Talley for weight loss. He prescribed the drug Fen-Phen
(Fenfluramine-Pondimin) for the couple.

Mrs. Harris said Dr. Talley also gave her Trazodone (a sleeping pill), and
Prozac and Xanax.

"We stopped taking the Fen-Phen when all the stuff came out about it being
bad for you," she said. "Dr. Talley said he was taking the Fen-Phen, too,
and offered to buy the pills we had left over. But we did not have any
pills left, we had thrown them out."

Ray Harris was a patient of Dr. Talley's until the day he died. Mrs. Harris
stopped seeing Dr. Talley in March 2000, two months after the suicide.

"I tried to talk to Dr. Talley about my husband's suicide. He acted like he
didn't care," she said. "I quit going to him."

Mrs. Harris said she did not come forward with her story to get sympathy.
She and her son moved out of the house where Ray killed himself. She said
that she could not live there.

Mrs. Harris said the toughest times come when her son, now 3 years old,
wants to "see his daddy."

"I would like for Dr. Talley to live in the shoes of the parents, wives,
husbands and children of families he destroyed. He needs to understand what
he has put some people through," she said.