Gerald Klein, MD, a pain clinic physician, was acquitted of a first-degree murder charge. The Florida physician was charged with a single minor drug count for prescribing an anti-anxiety drug to a patient, according to Sun Sentinel.
Here are five key points:
1. In 2011, Palm Beach County prosecutors charged Dr. Klein with first-degree murder and serious drug charges in a case against "pill mill" operators. Michael McAuliffe, former Palm Beach County state attorney, said, "We looked at it not as a tragic accident but as a murder."
2. Dr. Klein was acquitted by a jury of eight women and four women who found Dr. Klein not guilty of murder in the 2009 overdose of a patient. State prosecutors stated the patient died after taking a large dose of a narcotic and an anti-anxiety drug that Dr. Klein prescribed the day prior.
3. Jurors also found Dr. Klein not guilty of nine other charges including trafficking in the painkillers hydromorphone and oxycodone. Dr. Klein was convicted on one drug charge involving Alejandro Pino, who worked as a chef for Donald Trump at the time.
4. The defense claimed the case was really about the illegal operations occurring at the East Coast Pain Clinic in West Palm Beach, which supplied more than 20 million oxycodone pills. The clinics were closed after March 2010 federal raids.
5. Dr. Klein was sentenced to jail time following the minor drug charge. He faces up to five years in prison although there is no minimum jail time required. This case was one of the few times a Florida physician has been tried for murder following the death of a patient taking pain medication.
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8 ways to prepare your spine or pain care program for 2016