• Local Doctor Busted by Feds:

    The FBI and DEA continue to harass local Doctors and pharmacists in a vain effort to take legal pharmaceuticals off the market. Today Dr. Carmine Mondarano of East Islip was arrested and released on a $500K bond accused of proscribing 308 Thousand pain pills in a 3 year period. Sounds like a lot, but is it really?
    Doctor works a five day week see's 4-5 patients an hour that is about 30-40 patients a day or about 200 patients a week. Although the Doctor specializes in immunology, he also is a Suboxone specialist (has a special certification to administer that and other pain meds) Assuming half the patients require a 30 day supply at 3-4 pills a day that is over 127 Thousand pills a year. Now this is a particularly busy practice with a doctor who is in his early 60s and is beloved in his community. Most of these patients receive a month supply and 2-3 renewals (because insurance will not approve a 90 day supply.) Assuming that most of these cases suffer from chronic pain, that is not a bad assumption. Hence 127 Thousand is a low number in a year. The real question is what percent of his patients required these pain killers, Did he actually examine them on a regular basis, and why did it take SOOOO long to investigate him when a doctor is regularly audited and this man has passed numerous audits? This is the kind of questions we as potential jurors need to ask ourselves when we see these types of numbers thrown around by government investigators.
    The Feds especially like to use numbers to astonish jurors but do not let the final numbers surprise you. Do the math yourselves. Similarly prosecutors like to play games with words. Be careful about listening because the truth is often in what is not said. Just because it comes out of a "Special Agent's or detective's mouth does not render it gospel.
    H/T:http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/northport-doctor-charged-with-illegal-oxycodone-distribution-1.6594779