Federal Judge Dismisses Patient Death Charges in Opioid Trial of Dr. Thomas Sachy
Macon Physician Dr. Thomas Sachy Secures Dismissal of Charges that he Caused the Death of Two Pain Patients
https://ronaldwchapman.com/blog/sachy-dismissal
Dr. Thomas Sachy, a neuropsychiatrist who worked near Macon Georgia, was indicted in 2018 for operating a “pill mill” and causing the deaths of two patients. Both charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison – each. After a hard fought victory, Dr. Sachy will walk out of the federal courthouse in Columbus, GA a free man on May 11, 2023 after a five year battle with the federal government and DEA.
His attorneys, Ronald W. Chapman II and Meggan Sullivan are grateful that they could secure freedom for yet another physician targeted by the DEA.
The once well respected neuropsychiatrist was an expert forensic psychiatrist in many high-profile Georgia murder cases, physician board reviewer for the Georgia Board of Medicine and guest speaker for the Georgia Bar.
Dr. Sachy Indicted and Jailed for Unlawful Distribution
In 2018, agents from the DEA burst through the door of the neuropsychiatrist’s practice and, as one patient would describe, held patients and staff at gunpoint. Dr. Sachy, the prominent Georgia Physician was arrested along with his 80 year old mother, his wife, and a nurse that worked at the practice.
After an undercover patient visit was unsuccessful in securing a prescription for opioid pain medication, the DEA pivoted and alleged that Dr. Sachy caused the death of two patients. Both patients suffered from significant heart issues.
Dr. Sachy was jailed for nearly three years after his arrest and was only able to secure his release after the landmark Supreme Court decision in Ruan v. United States which clarified the standard for when a physician could be convicted of unlawful distribution.
Under the new standard, Dr. Sachy proceeded to trial in the Middle District of Georgia in May of 2023.
The Trial of Dr. Sachy
The Government opened its case with the testimony of family members of the deceased who provided emotional testimony about their loved ones and their use of opioids. Federal prosecutors, however, ran into problems during the technical aspects of their case.
First, an expert anesthesiologist for the Government, Dr. Barry Straus testified that the standard for drug trafficking for a physician is the same as the standard applied by the Georgia Board.
During his thorough cross examination by Ronald W. Chapman II he attempted to convince the jury that any physician prescribing over 200 morphine milligrams per day of opiates that is not board certified in pain should be prosecuted. No such standard is found anywhere in the law or regulations surrounding opioid prescribing.
Defense Secures Exclusion of Expert Forensic Toxicologist Stacy Hail
The Government then attempted to establish that the opioids prescribed by Dr. Sachy caused the death of two patients – an effort that would later fail resulting in dismissal of the two death charges.
The dismissal came immediately after the testimony of Forensic Toxicologist Stacy Hail was excluded from trial. Dr. Hail began her testimony on the morning of May 9th armed with a whiteboard and marker, engaged in a preformative display in front of the jury where she described how opioids can cause death. Her testimony was abruptly halted by an objection from Ronald W. Chapman II after she testified that medication bottles was found near the body of one of the deceased patients. This was untrue and prosecutors would later admit that the error was due to Stacy Hail mixing up one of her many other assignments as an expert toxicologist.
The objection spawned defense arguments before District Judge Clay Land ultimately resulting in the exclusion of testimony from the medical examiner who conducted the “limited autopsy”. The defense objected to the introduction of toxicology reports that lacked a foundation laid by the lab tech preparing the report. Prosecutors admitted that prior to trial they had not secured the testimony of the lab tech and did not intend to call the person who tested the sample during their case – a violation of Dr. Sachy’s sixth amendment right to confrontation.
Late in the afternoon, its case dismantled by the exclusion of two important witnesses, the prosecution rose to admit that it lacked the basic foundational toxicology evidence needed to move forward with the charges.
The Government rested its case shortly after.
On May 9, 2023, seven days into the trial that was expected to last nearly a month, Judge Clay Land of the Middle District of Georgia dismissed two charges of the indictment which alleged that Dr. Sachy distributed controlled substances causing the death of two patients.
The Defense Calls Patients of Dr. Sachy Who Suffered from Debilitating Pain
Still remaining were charges that Dr. Sachy ran a drug involved premises, engaged in a conspiracy to unlawfully distribute, and unlawfully prescribed to three specific patients.
The next day the defense called 10 witnesses including former patients of Dr. Sachy who described their debilitating ailments, family members of deceased patients, an addictionologist who evaluated pain patients for Dr. Sachy. The defense began to erase a picture created by Federal Prosecutors that tolerance equates to addiction and that aberrant behaviors require dismissal. The brother of a patient who later committed suicide due to untreated pain provided emotionally charged testimony. The patient was abruptly refused pain medication following the arrest and indictment of two of his physicians. The witness described Dr. Sachy as his brother’s savior and told the jury that Dr. Sachy gave him some semblance of his life back.
Two other patients, a husband and wife, both testified after allegations by the Government’s expert Dr. Barry Straus, that it was inappropriate to see patients residing in the same household. The husband and wife duo testified that they both had severe pain, one suffering from fibromyalgia and another suffering from pain as a result of an accident that required him to be cut out of his car by EMS. Meggan Sullivan lead the examinations and walked the jury through the debilitating pain that Dr. Sachy’s patients suffered from.
Prosecutors Agree to Dismiss the Remaining Charges of Drug Conspiracy, Unlawful Drug Distribution, and Money Laundering
At the end of the first day of the Defense case that was expected to last three days and culminate in the testimony of Dr. Sachy’s expert witness Dr. James Murphy, the Federal Prosecutors approached Dr. Sachy with a resolution. The resolution would result in the dismissal of all charges in the indictment related to opioid distribution, no jail time, and the return of $1.2 million in assets seized by the Federal Government.
As a result of the agreement, Dr. Sachy walked out of the Federal Courthouse in Columbus Georgia a free man.
The result was secured by significant efforts from Dr. Sachy’s investigators CCG Healthcare, his attorneys Ronald W. Chapman and Meggan Sullivan and the hard working staff at Chapman Law Group.
Ronald W. Chapman II is a federal defense attorney, author of “Unraveling Federal Criminal Investigations” , and frequent TV news commentator who regularly defends physicians facing allegations of unlawful distribution. He is also the president of CCG Healthcare a healthcare consulting firm devoted to aiding physicians and health care practices with compliance to avoid career ending federal investigations and charges related to health care fraud and opioid distribution.
Filed under: General Problems
That is absolutely fantastic news for Doctors and Patients dealing with pain. The Judge is a hero!!!! Maybe we will get a run on fixing the atrocities caused by not heads and liars.
with no semblance of humanity. If we could give them only half the pain we have, who would be whining like a baby and quit lying!
Ted
It totally agree.
I should note that I don’t mean to detract from the phenomenal victory here with my former comment. I just think it’s a potential we should be diligently monitoring for the time being. Because if my suspicions are correct, and I am afraid they may be or I’d not have brought it up, then legal counsel for any future accused may have their work cut out for them. I honestly don’t know if there is an effective way to defend against those types of allegations. Especially since, as we can clearly see, the burden of proof seems to rest squarely on the shoulders of the accused instead of on the State, where it belongs. I seriously can’t wrap my head around how there could be so many highly educated providers who have got to be acutely aware of the utter irrationality of involving themselves in such things when they know they can safely assume they’re under a microscope for continuing to prescribe to begin with. Prior to the last couple of weeks, I had seen few articles citing alleged sex-for-pills charges and all reports were spread out over a substantial length of time, but it does appear to be a common component of recent indictments at present. Which raises my eyebrows just a little. Anyhow, Congrats to Dr. Sachy! I am elated for him and his loved ones! I am curious as to whether he will be granted reinstatement of full privileges, should he opt to go for them. I would certainly hope so, but we’ve seen Board refusal to reinstate license to practice and/or refusal to reinstate prescribing rights before. Either way, this is most certainly still a big W for Dr. Sachy and we can always hope that it will set a solid legal precedent for other cases, as true justice. Hopefully the Doc can begin to heal from the wrongful legal beating he sustained. I wish him the best.
This might be a part of the reason they’re now apparently charging many providers with sex-for-pills schemes. I’ve seen right around half a dozen providers in the last couple of weeks, from all over the nation, being brought up on those charges. Amongst the same old song and dance charges, anyhow. I have a terribly difficult time believing there are that many whom they’ve suddenly discovered were doing something like that. Especially that close together. I assume it’s the new plan of attack. If they’re willing to make assertions about his liability in the deaths in patients who had serious, life threatening health complications, only because he dared to prescribe pain medications to treat their painful conditions (which likely reduced stress on their hearts due to NOT having to live with untreated pain), then I also have to assume they wouldn’t be above seeking out patients who would be willing to say whatever they wanted them to in order to secure a conviction that would be exponentially more difficult to overturn. Especially since there is a sentiment in which we do not question if someone makes claims about sex crimes, which would no doubt be the rationale behind using it to their advantage, if that is indeed the case. It may not be in all of these cases, there may be truth to some, I acknowledge that much. But I have serious doubts that it applies to ALL. I also understand that sentiment is meant to protect real victims, but it also presents a loophole that can be and has been abused by those who desire to weaponize it against another. If you can’t question without being accused of furthering victimization, you also can’t question in order to determine the veracity of claims that have been made. Which means that some will inevitably exploit that loophole. That is what I strongly suspect may be occurring here. 1-2 providers, maybe I could believe it. Maybe. But when a pattern begins to emerge in rapid succession, that means it’s time to take a step back to more closely examine the situation. Unfortunately, if this is in fact the goal with that angle, it’s probably going to get a whole lot tougher to overturn convictions or have charges dropped because it’s no longer about only provable facts, but also the testimony of human beings. Some of whom can be persuaded to spin tale tales. Especially if there is something to be gained from doing so, whatever that might be. Could be nothing more than “We won’t make your life a living hell if…”. Never can tell these days, where truth is absolutely stranger than fiction. I’m just saying if it smells funny, I won’t eat whatever I’m being fed.
Excellent read!
Ted
Can you sum up your contention in a sentence or two? I’m having a little trouble following your thinking. Thanks!
Well, to put it a little more plainly, I’m concerned that because some of these cases are being overturned based on facts, the Feds may be introducing an element that would make it more difficult to overturn these cases. That being the accusations of sex in exchange for medication. Because it’s a matter of a patient’s word against the doctor’s, considering which has been accused of a crime, it’s going to appear that these providers have taken their alleged “crimes” to a new level of “evil”. Sure, some of them could be guilty of what they’re being accused of. But I have a very hard time believing that they are all guilty of using sexual favors as a bartering tool in exchange for pain pills. As I understand it, the vast majority of physicians take the trust of their patients seriously enough to not exploit it in that way. Some doctors may not be the most kind human beings, but this is matter of ethics that I believe most have. Their lives, as they know and enjoy them, depend on their ethics, for one. So I really hesitate to simply accept that so many of them are actually doing these things when we know the charges they face have been bogus from the start. Especially when it went from doctor being accused of this maybe twice a year to about half a dozen in a couple of weeks, all over the states. I know that’s more than a couple of sentences, but I’m not sure how I could be more clear with less wording. I hope this helps. And just so it’s clear, I am not stating as fact that this IS what is happening, but what I am concerned is POSSIBLY happening.