Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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Marc Shinderman
A doctor described as a giant in the field of addiction treatment will spend six months in prison for forging prescription slips and medical records, a judge decided Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland.
As a psychiatrist in Illinois, Marc Shinderman, 64, wrote groundbreaking articles on the proper dose for methadone patients and simultaneous treatment of psychiatric and addiction disorders.
But in Maine, where he was not licensed to prescribe controlled drugs, his practice of forging prescriptions and then falsifying log books to make it look as though patients had been seen by doctors with valid registrations led to criminal charges. He was convicted in July of 58 felony offenses.
In addition to his prison term, Shinderman will serve six months of home confinement and will have to pay a $30,000 fine. Shinderman also is likely to lose his license to practice medicine, and is still facing a lawsuit by the federal government against CAP Quality Care, the methadone clinic in Westbrook that his wife owns.
Even though the sentence was less than the 21-month prison term requested by the government, the penalty is significant, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark.
"That's a serious sentence," Clark said. "It sends a very powerful message, it seems to me, whenever a physician goes to jail."
Shinderman was sentenced in a courtroom full of family members, friends and colleagues, including 19 who testified on his behalf.
They described Shinderman as a leading figure in addiction medicine who risked his freedom and his career by providing medically necessary psychiatric drugs to CAP patients, even though he was not licensed to do so in this state.
Shinderman's lawyers called the prosecution "vindictive" and "personal," and suggested that he would not have been subject to such serious consequences if he had not been involved in addiction treatment.
When he imposed the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby made clear that Shinderman was not being punished for his controversial medical opinions or his clinic's alleged role in methadone overdose deaths in Portland.
At the same time, Hornby said, Shinderman would not be rewarded for the good he had done in the past.
Instead, the judge said he focused only on the crimes for which Shinderman was convicted at his trial.
"This was not an error in judgment. This was not a mistake," Hornby said. "It was intentional, it was a regular practice and it was criminal."
Hornby said he enhanced the sentence based on his finding that Shinderman had lied on the witness stand during his trial.
Several witnesses said that any jail sentence for Shinderman would scare other doctors away from treating addicts.
"It will have a deterrent effect, not against people breaking the law, but against physicians entering this type of practice," said David Marsh, an addiction specialist from Vancouver, British Columbia. "I think it will be detrimental to the effort to get physicians to treat people with addiction in ways that are effective and that would dramatically reduce crime."
Marc Riesinger, an addiction specialist from Brussels, Belgium, said Shinderman was being singled out because of the stigma surrounding drug abuse.
"What I saw today shows that the treatment of drug addiction in the United States is not yet part of normal medicine, because what Dr. Shinderman did happens every day in other medical sectors," he said.
Shinderman spoke briefly during his sentencing and apologized for what he called "a tragic lapse in judgment."
He thanked his friends and supporters and said he regretted "the loss of opportunity to do research and advocacy for my patients who suffer from psychiatric and addictive disorders. I fear that punishment will follow me for the rest of my life."
Shinderman, who said he has not decided whether to appeal the conviction, still faces other legal problems.
His conviction will be reviewed by the Illinois board of medical licensure, and if that board takes disciplinary action, the decision will be communicated to all of the other state medical boards.
CAP Quality Care is the defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging Medicaid fraud and violations of federal regulations covering the distribution of take-home doses of methadone. That case could go to trial as soon as this summer.
Sharon Pratt, a former client at CAP who triggered the investigation by telling the state medical board that Shinderman had overdosed her with methadone, attended the sentencing Monday.
"More jail time would have been better, but the fact that he's going to jail at all is awesome," Pratt said. "He won't ever take responsibility for the human lives he destroyed."
Staff Writer Gregory D. Kesich can be contacted at 791-6336 or at:
Reader comments
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I am a good guy, I have never committed a crime, I give alot of money to charity and volunteer at a local non-profit - but if I go and rob a house tomorrow, should they let me off? Of course not! I think the judge made the right decision, and I think 6 months for falsifying prescriptions, practicing without a license, and perjury seems fair to me.
And yes Dr. Shinderman, this WILL follow you for the rest of your life. Breaking the law and potentially causing major methadone addictions and overdoses in our great state, while you made your profit, deserves to follow you the rest of your life.report abuse
You have to be kidding me right? This is a misprint? He really got 6 years and 12 supervised probationary years?
The judge on this case should be fired immediately. The district attorney that prosecuted this case fired immediately.
What a travesty of justicereport abuse
If Dr.Shinderman were an neurologist would you think the same thing? He gave prescriptions for pysch meds using another doc's DEA# with the other doctors PERMISSION to do so! That is IT, that is ALL he did. This happens every day in doctors offices when the nurse uses the docs number to call in a script or write it out for him!
This WAS a travesty of justice, but not because he should have gotten more time....because he shouldn't have been in that court room to begin with. If he had been ANY other kind of doctor in ANY other state he wouldn't have been.
AS far as the "for profit" clinic, Jim.....I guess you work for FREE? I guess all Doctors shouldn't get paid for the work they do right?
ALSO, he WAS NOT charged with causing methadone deaths or addictions and that is because he DIDN"T cause them. If someone shoots someone with a gun, is it the gun store owners fault for selling the gun to the shooter? Should the owner be charged with MURDER ONE? That is how absurd proposing that Doctor Shinderman caused any overdose deaths. Overdose deaths happen because someone takes too much medication when they shouldn't. Who's fault is it? WEll that seems pretty simple, the person taking the drug in huge amounts. END OF STORY.
This whole trial was the worst witch-hunt I have ever witnessed and I have never been more ashamed of our state or our judicial system for doing this to a man who came here merely to help us while we were in the middle of a opiate addiction epidemic.report abuse
donot favor any prison time, rather regard the man first as a caring "addictions specialist" who
in good conscience walked as a servant of God.
(you can argue your medical ethics and the
morality of the laws on the books)
or.......insert your stupidity......For me and the good doctor, may he appeal to the Supreme
Court, for his appeal to be "understood" and
the judges "overturn" his conviction, and grant
him a medical pardon. If there is such a law, because doctor's and nurse's and care-giver's
be "re-educated" by medical disciplinary action.
(say 2 yrs of medical obligations to the
community) If you were a retired MD or nurse, and were called upon to help a patient, who was ill or suffering, your expertise is in "treating"your patients and not to meeting the medical stringent obstacles that may/maynot prevent you from helping the patient. Anyways, it
may appear as legit State law, however, if I empathize with the doctor is ONLY because the Spirit of God empathizes as me, "as the Holy
Word of God" declares....."I shall have MERCY, and not scacrifice! This good doctor should straightway appeal to the Supreme Courts for
"mercy ethical treatment of all doctors and/or
medical personnnel, whether in licensed practice or in the field. MY ETHICS are NOT your business!
In this case.....The error of judgement lies with
the State!......Not I, but Christ liveth in me has "judged righteously" in this matter!
if you stand in opposition or comdemnation of yourselves, you will have "no advocate" with the Son of Man, or with His Saints in the earth or in heaven! By your words, you are judged! I rejoice forever more, that I believe in truth
and mercy, and do "empathizes" with this lowly
man of God!report abuse
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