Posted on 02/28/2006 3:00:02 PM PST by MRMEAN
William Nucklos had a courtroom full of supporters --; including a 1968 Olympic gold-medalist -- at his Wednesday sentencing for 20 counts of drug trafficking and illegally possessing drug documents.
Nucklos was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. His medical license was suspended for five years.
Judge Douglas Rastatter questioned why Nucklos should be treated differently from a street dealer if he hadn’t fulfilled his medical duties.
A jury found Nucklos, 58, of Powell, guilty Feb. 15 after a two-year investigation of his Springfield medical office where he sold OxyContin prescriptions for $75 to $200.
Ronnie Harris, of Canton, who won an Olympic medal as a boxer, said he has known Nucklos since he was about 8 years old.
One by one, Harris had his wife and children stand up while he detailed how Nucklos had saved or improved their health.
Harris offered his medal to the court as a sign of his belief in Nucklos. Rastatter declined the offer.
"I would hope that this court looks at the true man that they're judging," Nucklos&'s wife, Shirley, said. "His patients are not numbers, they are people and he loves his patients."Defense attorney James Willis, who said he will appeal the case and sentence, requested the minimum 10-year sentence. "At no time, with no patient was it ever my intent to provide any sub-medical care or give medicines for anything other than a legitimate medical purpose,"Nucklos said.
The prosecution questioned the vast differences in statements of patients Nucklos treated in Columbus and Springfield.
"I have to wonder if Dr. Nucklos was living a double life," said Special Prosecutor Carol O'Brien, of the state attorney general"s office.
O&'Brien pointed out Nucklos's duty as a physician to follow legal guidelines and asked for the maximum 50-year sentence. "This is the worst form of this offense," she said. "You have a doctor whose obligation is to do no harm, trafficking in something extremely harmful"
Reach Natalie Morales at nmorales@coxohio.com
This was my mom's dr. I hated him and we have complained to my mom about him a long time.
Rush Limbaugh's doctor?
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