Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Dr. David Klees was sentenced Tuesday to 13 and a half to 44 years in jail, for over-prescribing painkillers to his patients. The healer turned into a dealer. That's how prosecutors described Dr. David Klees in late 1999 and early 2000. It was a mighty fall from one of society's most honored professions. 46-year-old Dr. David Klees was found guilty of recklessly prescribing powerful painkillers for even the slightest aches. He's charged on 12 counts in all including, risking lives, creating addicts and trading drugs for favors. "The plan was simply to prescribe prescriptions, and to throw very heavy prescriptions very early in the game, and in consequence," said Doug Wright, Deputy Attorney General. "He did this without any addiciton liability or worse, and somebody with a ligitimate pain complaint could find themselves addicted real quick."
(Admin- Just what in the hell does that mean?) Defense attorneys did not comment, but clearly, they were not pleased at how severe the sentence was...proof that prosecutors are ready to treat drug dealers seriously, even the ones who went to medical school. 46-year-old Doctor David Klees is now behind bars, after being charged with involuntary manslaughter of a patient, and with writing illegal prescriptions for a number of drugs...including the addictive pain killer Oxycontin. Klees operated a medical practice at 217 West 11th Street until its closing in September 2003. Dr. Klees was arraigned Thursday morning in Erie Central Court. Klees is charged with the death of Sherry Ziroli, who died May 17th 2003. Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook ruled she had died of combined drug toxicity. The coroner also determined that the prescription pain killers hydrocodone and fentanyl were found in Ziroli's blood in lethal amounts. Investigators also found a number of pill bottles at Ziroli's home, all prescribed by Dr. Klees. But, Ziroli wasn't Dr. Klees' only victim. Investigators found a number of his other patients were also addicted to prescription pain killer, all while under his care. In some cases, Dr. Klees didn't perform any diagnostic test before prescribing the drugs and increased patients dosages without their knowledge. That's when a local pharmacist became involved. The pharmacist told investigators that based on what Klees had prescribed a certain patient, if the patient takes all the drugs, he could die. (Admin- I usually refrain from commenting within a story but this is just too much. This could be said about every one of the millions of Rx's written in this country every single day. What would happen if the person used the whole bottle of insulin he was prescribed? Or the whole bottle of digoxin, or metoprolol, or amiodarone, or ANYTHING!! Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.)
On September 9th, investigators issued a search warrant and seized 11 patient files, including one of an undercover agent. Dr. Klees is charged with involuntary manslaughter which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a 10-thousand dollar fine. Also, 12 counts of illegally prescribing prescription drugs, each carrying a maximum of 15 years and a 250-thousand dollar fine.
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