Doctor clear in opioid box involving thousands of pills
A Nova Scotia alloy indicted of rascal and wrong possession of absolute narcotics has been acquitted of all charges.
Dr. Sarah Jones faced 3 depends of fraud, one count of wrong possession of oxycodone, and one count of fraudulently sketch a request associated to prescriptions in a name of a patient, Merle Chase.
The Tantallon, N.S., doctor had been on hearing in provincial justice in Bridgewater. On Friday, Judge Timothy Landry found Jones not guilty.Â
The charge had alleged Jones wrote prescriptions for tens of thousands of opioid pills involving a singular patient, Merle Chase, over a matter of months.
Judge’s reasons for a acquittal
In his decision, Landry said he was left with reasonable doubt and had to justify Jones.Â
“I have resolved that other receptive conclusions other than a shame of a indicted exist,” examination a decision.Â
He summarized a series of aspects of a box that expel doubt on Jones’s guilt.
Landry pronounced it was transparent to a justice that Chase was a formidable patient, “prone to romantic outbursts and it seemed as if he could be really demanding, generally if he was pang some pain.”
According to a decision, Landry also pronounced while he believes testimony that Jones prescribed many thousands of opioids to Chase, a Crown unsuccessful to benefaction an “expert opinion as to a medical correspondence of a prescriptions that were prescribed by a indicted for Mr. Chase.”
He also pronounced a justice was not presented with testimony indicating a volume prescribed to Chase was not medically necessary.Â
The charge had purported Jones wrote prescriptions for tens of thousands of opioid pills involving a singular patient, Merle Chase, over a matter of months. (Graeme Roy/Canadian Press)
Landry also said, formed on a evidence, it was a “reasonable possibility” that Chase’s roommate was ludicrous his opiates.
“Mr. Chase indicated that visitors would attend during a residence, they would enter his room while in a association of Norma Wentzell. When they left a residence, Mr. Chase told a justice that he knew that they had left by his drugs as his pills were not in a same sequence in his tablet box,” pronounced Landry.
Chase also told a justice that Wentzell was “routinely concerned in matters between himself and Dr. Jones and in matters involving his prescriptions.”
Finally, Landry said after looking during all a justification he resolved that Jones was a “young comparatively fresh alloy perplexing to understanding with a formidable studious who, by all appearances had nowhere else to spin and who was pang from a series of opposite poignant medical issues.”
Jones ‘very pleased’ with decision
Crown contention Josh Bryson said a preference is “lengthy” and it will take time to go by and confirm how a Crown will proceed.
As with any case, a Crown now has 25 days to examination a preference and cruise an appeal.
“Ultimately, a rapist customary of explanation over a reasonable doubt is a high standard, and eventually Judge Landry was not confident that a Crown had met a weight and entered an exculpation accordingly,” pronounced Bryson.
Jones did not pronounce to a media following a decision, though her counsel Stan MacDonald addressed reporters.
“It’s been a prolonged road, though a preference is a plain decision, and she’s really gratified with a decision,” he said.
Volume of pills ‘ridiculous’Â
The charges were laid in 2016 after a military review into Jones’s activity between Jan 2014 and Aug 2015. She creatively faced charges of drug trafficking, though those were cold by a Crown.
Dr. Gus Grant, registrar and CEO of a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, pronounced Jones stays underneath an halt cessation until she can remonstrate a review cabinet that it “need not be in place.”
“The doubt before a review cabinet will be utterly simply either a caring and control of Dr. Jones met a customary of a contention — either a caring and control constitutes veteran bungle or constitutes control uncivilised a physician,” pronounced Grant.
The hearing listened Jones would mostly collect a pills from a pharmacy and take them to a patient. Bridgewater Superstore pharmacy manager Melinda Kerwin testified during a hearing that no other doctors did that. Kerwin also pronounced a volume of pills was “ridiculous” for a singular patient.
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sarah-jones-acquitted-1.4353141?cmp=rss