Government to seek more charges; Dr. Trieu will face at least 100
The Biloxi Sun Herald
By Robin Fitzgerald
August 13, 2008
The four defendants accused of running a Biloxi doctor’s clinic and pharmacy as a ‘pill mill’ for drug-seekers received bond Tuesday after the government announced it will seek more than 100 additional counts against one of the doctors.
Dr. Thomas Trieu, who received the stiffest conditions of release, finds himself the target of a new indictment the government seeks to obtain from a grand jury in September.
“He is accused of being a drug dealer,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Meynardie.
California attorney Wayne Gross – who most recently represented actor Wesley Snipes in a tax evasion case – said he applauds the judge’s “well-researched decision” to give Trieu a bond. But arguing on Trieu’s behalf earlier Tuesday, Gross described the case as “extremely unorthodox and aggressive. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The government plans to prosecute Trieu under the federal “crack house statute,” enacted by Congress to punish crack dealers with enhanced penalties, said Gross. The charges were filed after an undercover investigation in which DEA agents faked coughs, back pain and anxiety to get prescriptions for a narcotic cough syrup, hydrocodone and alprazalom.
Meynardie said the government also will investigate Trieu for possible Medicaid and insurance fraud in separate cases and possibly money-laundering. District attorneys in Harrison and Jackson counties will consider possible
charges against Trieu for nine to 12 drug overdose deaths at a later date, Meynardie said.
“They have not painted a true picture of my family,” said Lana Van, an Anaheim, Calif., pharmacist and defendant Dr. Victoria Van’s sister. “They are good, honorable people. ”
“We are very thankful to God,” Lana Van said after her sister received bond.
The government, which has frozen the defendants’ assets, opposed bond for Dr. Trieu, resulting in a lengthy afternoon hearing.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. said Dr. Trieu has family and community ties, no criminal background and no prior character or conduct problems.
“Yes, there are a combination of conditions of release that can reasonably assure your appearance in court,” Guirola told Dr. Trieu, but warned that violating any condition of release “would be tantamount to the betrayal of my trust.”
Besides Dr. Trieu, Guirola set bond at $100,000 for each defendant, Dr. Van, pharmacist Nick Tran and the doctors’ former office manager, Richard Trieu. Dr. Trieu’s bond must be secured or paid in cash. Guirola ordered Dr. Trieu to home confinement, subject to house arrest. While on bond, Trieu can’t practice medicine and he can’t leave home except for court appearances, personal medical visits or religious meetings.
The defendants had been in custody 72 days since the DEA raided the Family Medical Center and Tran’s Pharmacy in May.
“It’s moments like these that make me proud to be a lawyer,” Dr. Van’s attorney, Michael Crosby, said of her release. “Dr. Van’s children have suffered greatly by not having physical contact with their mother.”
The doctors are the parents of two toddlers.
Richard Trieu’s wife, who is pregnant, and other friends and family of the defendants attended the hearings, along with longtime patients of the doctors. Dr. Thomas Stebbins was among those prepared to testify for the doctors. Stebbins is a global ambassador for Evangelism Explosion International, founded by the late Dr. James Kennedy.