Hearings Begin In Journalist’s Freedom Of Information Lawsuit Against DEA

http://ripr.org/post/hearings-begin-journalists-freedom-information-lawsuit-against-dea

 A judge in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island began hearings Wednesday in a lawsuit against the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, spurred by a local journalist.

Providence-based writer Phil Eil, says he’s fought for more than five years to obtain access to thousands of pages of public evidence from a pill-mill trial, about which he plans to write a book.

“I think it’s long overdue that the press and the public have access to the evidence, and I hope the judge will agree with that and say this has gone on long enough,” said Eil. 

The ACLU of Rhode Island is representing Eil. ACLU Director Steve Brown said the DEA has unfairly denied Eil the documents he requested.

“We’re not saying he’s entitled to all of them. We do recognize that there are privacy concerns,” said Brown. “But the DEA has really engaged in a wholesale denial of literally thousands of documents.”

The case in question involves a Chicago doctor found guilty of distributing millions of opioids at clinics across Ohio. The physician, Dr. Paul Volkman, was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, one of the lengthiest criminal sentences for a physician in U.S. History.

Eil requests documents related to the case as part of his research for a book he was hoping to write.

One of Eil’s attorneys told Esquire Magazine that the DEA refused to release the bulk of the documents due to concerns involving medical privacy.

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