All Wayne County charges dropped in Drug & Opiate Recovery Network drug case

Mike Emery
Richmond Palladium-Item

 

A sign marked the former Drug & Opiate Recovery Network clinic on Airport Road in Centerville, Indiana.

RICHMOND, Ind. — Criminal charges in Wayne County against the head of the statewide Drug & Opiate Recovery Network and two employees of the Centerville satellite office have been dismissed more than two years after they originally were filed.

Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Shipman filed motions last week to dismiss all charges against Dr. Larry Ley, Dr. Ronald Vierk and nurse Yvonne Morgan. Superior Court II Judge Gregory Horn officially dismissed the charges the next day.

The cases were filed in September 2014 after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Hamilton/Boone County Drug Task Force investigated the Drug & Opiate Recovery Network, also known as DORN Inc., a system of clinics that prescribed Suboxone, a synthetic heroin substitute, to treat addictions.

Federal officials called DORN a "cash-and-carry" operation, saying prescriptions were issued outside normal practices without requesting patient identification, interviewing clients or performing examinations.

Ley, a former Richmond urologist who was head of the Carmel-based DORN system, was tried by Hamilton County Superior Court I Judge Steven Nation in August on 11 charges. After a seven-day trial, Nation ruled the prosecution failed to prove prescriptions were issued outside the usual course of professional medical procedures.

"Our charges were based on very similar conduct that occurred in Wayne County," Shipman said in an emailed statement about the decision to dismiss charges. "I recently finished my review of the trial transcript. Judge Nation in Hamilton County found that Dr. Ley did not knowingly prescribe medications outside the normal course of professional practice.

"For this reason and double jeopardy prohibitions, I have concluded that further prosecution of the three co-defendants is no longer appropriate."

The Wayne County charges against Ley — a Class B felony count of conspiracy to commit dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance and a Class C felony count of corrupt business influence — mirrored counts for which Ley was acquitted in Hamilton County.

Vierk of Richmond was the chief prescribing doctor at the Centerville clinic on Airport Road. He was charged with one Class B felony count of conspiracy to commit dealing, one Class C felony count of corrupt business influence and three Class B felony counts of dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance.

Morgan, an Eaton, Ohio, nurse, served as the office manager at the Centerville DORN clinic. She was charged with one Class B felony count of conspiracy to commit dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance, one Class B felony count of dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance, one Class C felony count of corrupt business influence and three Class B felony counts of aiding or inducing dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance.

In his motion to dismiss the local charges, Shipman noted evidence related to the alleged criminal conspiracy among Ley, Vierk and Morgan was presented during Ley's trial, and any possible trial in Wayne County would use the same essential facts and evidence. He also noted the prosecution in Wayne County could not wouldn't be able to establish the existence of a conspiracy separate from the one for which Ley already was acquitted in Hamilton County.

Shipman wrote that the Hamilton County acquittal precluded any Wayne County prosecution on the same charges.

Ley, with attorney's Terry O'Maley of Richmond and James Crum of Carmel, had filed a motion to dismiss the Wayne County charges because of his Hamilton County acquittal. Horn had set a Dec. 19 deadline for the prosecution's response.

Vierk and Morgan, with attorney Ronald Moore, previously had challenged the validity of the Wayne County charges against them, filing motions to dismiss. Horn upheld the charges against Vierk and dismissed those against Morgan.

The judge ruled Vierk, as a licensed physician, was expected to know if prescriptions were without a legitimate purpose or outside the usual course of his professional practice but Morgan, as a nurse, faced no such expectations.

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed Horn's decision regarding Morgan, noting a jury should decide whether she should have known whether her actions and those of Vierk were outside the usual course of practice.

Morgan continued her challenge by petitioning the Indiana Supreme Court to accept a transfer of the case and dismiss the charges. Chief Justice Loretta Rush later signed an order denying Morgan's petition.