State Courts

Former Haysville doctor will stay out of jail awaiting trial

By Ron Sylvester

A federal judge in Wichita ruled today that a former Haysville doctor will remain free awaiting trial next month on charges that he over-prescribed painkillers, resulting in the deaths of 59 patients.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot denied a request by the prosecution to revoke Stephen Schneider’s bond.

Prosecutors had said Schneider didn’t meet conditions of his bond by not finding someone to safely keep the records held at the Schneider Medical Clinic. Schneider’s lawyer said they couldn’t agree with the prosecution on an appropriate person to keep the records. Nor could the Kansas Board of Healing Arts come to terms over the records. The board has filed suit asking a Shawnee County District Judge to appoint a custodian.

“It is the State Board of Healing Arts that is best positioned to ensure that Defendant?s responsibilities are fulfilled concerning the medical records and his duties to his former patients,” Belot wrote in his order.

Linda Schneider, the doctor’s wife and manager of the clinic, remains in jail awaiting trial Feb. 3, after judges ruled she was a potential flight risk. The couple face 34 federal charges and claims that they ran a “pill mill” and unlawfully prescribed painkillers and other narcotics, putting their patients in danger.

Full post as published by What the Judge Ate for Breakfast on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).