PHARMACIST STEVE

http://ashtabulacurrent.com/appellate-court-overturns-dismissal-of-drug-charges-against-doctor/

JEFFERSON_Dr. Shannon Swanson, of East Springfield, Pa., entered the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Alfred Mackey Tuesday for a pretrial hearing facing 52 felony counts of processing controlled substances and prescription drug trafficking. Judge Mackey dismissed all charges against Dr. Swanson after hearing arguments from defense attorneys Angelo Lonardo, of Cleveland, Leonard Ambrose III of Erie. Pa., Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci and Assistant Prosecutor Cecilia Cooper.
Dr. Swanson, family members and friends let out sighs of relief and tearful hugs were exchanged after Judge Mackey made his decision known.


“I’m just going to put everybody out of their misery; these charges are dismissed,” Judge Mackey said. “I think this is a case of prosecution overreach.”

Dr. Swanson was charged with writing prescriptions for friends and co-workers without diagnosis and examination. The dismissal motion was filed Thursday by Swanson’s attorneys. The motion states Swanson wrote prescriptions for Ambien, a sleep aid, and Phentermine, a diet pill that is listed as a controlled substance. The motion claims that Swanson received nothing in return for the prescriptions she wrote, which were given to “individuals she came to know during the course of her medical practice, with the intent to help the individual.”

BACKGROUND

On March 19, 2014, the Ashtabula County Grand Jury indicted Dr. Shannon L. Swanson, D.O., on twenty-six felony counts of Trafficking in Drugs. Swanson pleaded not guilty to the original 26 counts. A second grand jury added 26 counts of processing a controlled substance. She has yet to enter a plea to the new set of charges.
Swanson, who is a former doctor of St. Joseph’s Andover Medical Center, is now charged with 26 counts of trafficking in drugs as well as 26 counts of illegal processing of drug documents.
Iarocci said the 52 charges go hand-in-hand. There were allegedly 26 “transactions” in which Swanson is accused of prescribing controlled substances to friends and coworkers who were not her patients, and not for legitimate medical purposes, according to the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy.
Iarocci said, essentially, there are two charges for each of the 26 “transactions.”