One of the Firm’s signature cases, David Oscar Markus led the defense team to another first of its kind victory — not guilty verdicts across the board on 141 counts against a doctor charged in federal court with selling pain medications in a “pill mill” prosecution. 

After a month long trial, the jury acquitted on all counts in less than a half a day, and after they announced the verdict, the jury hugged the lawyers and client.  (Here’s the Sun-Sentinel article (pdf) and the Herald article (pdf)). Markus was able to show that this was not a pill mill at all. In addition to the acquittal, Markus uncovered prosecutorial misconduct and the federal judge heard two days of testimony from prosecutors and agents, after which the court ordered the government to pay Dr. Shaygan and his lawyers over $600,000.

 The Eleventh Circuit reversed the fee award, with several dissenting opinions, which generated a great deal of press including this National Law Journal article (pdf).  Since this case, the Firm is regularly consulted on cases involving doctors and pharmacists charged with cases involving pain medication such as oxycodone, oxycontin, hydrocodone, and so on. For example, the Firm recently represented the owner of Robert’s, a pharmacy chain in Florida, and currently represents a number of doctors. Both state authorities and the federal government have cast way too wide a net in the prosecution of doctors and pharmacists who are engaged in legitimate medical practice, and the Firm takes great pride in defending these cases. 

David recently spoke to other criminal defense lawyers on how to win pill-mill prosecutions in the Fall.

Pictured: Dr. Shaygan and David walking into court during trial.