April 15, 2007 — The detention of Dr. Paul Maynard, recently convicted of prescribing pain medication to patients “without a legitimate purpose,” has drawn the attention of Delegate Donna M. Christensen, who has written a protest letter to the nation's top prison official.
“I am writing to make a plea for help on behalf of my constituent, Dr. Paul Maynard," Christensen writes in her April 12 letter, addressed to Harley G. Lappin, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. "He is currently being held in a prison whose degraded conditions have put his health and life at risk.”
After his conviction Feb. 15, federal officials placed Maynard in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, which is maintained by the federal government. It's an eight-story jail facility located on a 10-acre parcel of land in downtown Guaynabo. It is a detention facility, not a prison.
Since Maynard is scheduled to be sentenced in St. Thomas on June 1, Christensen wrote, "It would make sense for him to be returned to St. Thomas, where he could get the care and support of his family that he so critically needs. If his health and safety cannot be assured in custody, either in San Juan or in St Thomas, then we really should reconsider confining him at all — at least until after he is sentenced."
The doctor is at risk for more than his health — his individual rights and liberties are at risk, Christensen asserts: "Dr. Maynard is being subjected to conditions such as the denial of access to his counsel and denied unrestricted access to the law library, had his reading glasses taken and there is the crucial denial of the medical treatment necessary to assure his well-being.”
Christensen drew parallels to other problems reported at the facility.
“Two years ago, a number of inmates at MDC Guaynabo complained about the very same deplorable conditions in Parris v. Chavez, 199 Fed. Appx. 198 (3rd Cir. 2006)," she wrote. "It is unfortunate that those conditions have not been remedied.”
In that case, some of the complaints closely resembled those of Maynard. The plaintiffs claimed that they were subjected to racial and religious discrimination, that they were precluded from making unmonitored telephone calls to their attorneys, that their access to the law library was restricted and that they had been denied adequate medical care.
During Maynard's trial, the prosecuting attorney said Maynard was "motivated by greed." The doctor prescribed drugs to people for a fee without examining their medical records, conducting follow-up examinations or referring those patients to other medical professionals for further study, Kim Chisholm said.
Chisholm also blamed one of Maynard's prescriptions for OxyContin, a powerful and addictive narcotic, as the cause of death of 26-year-old Aaron Houle in May 2001.
Siobhan Reynolds, founder and president of the Pain Relief Network (PRN), has been an outspoken advocate for Maynard since his conviction. She has attacked the conviction as a "sham" and his confinement under "deplorable conditions" as demonstrating the government's "shameful disregard for Dr. Maynard's most basic human and civil rights."
"We are concerned that the same judge from Pennsylvania who ordered Dr. Maynard confined awaiting sentence, put him in the same prison he knew maintained such deplorable conditions," Reynolds said. "What's worse, this judge refused to consider the bona fide complaints of other complaining prisoners in the past."
PRN brought Maynard together with his current counsel and post-trial attorney, John P. Flannery, a former New York federal prosecutor and former special counsel to the U.S. Senate and House judiciary committees. Flannery now works in private practice in Virginia.
"Dr. Maynard is lucky to have such strong advocates as attorney Flannery and (Delegate) Christensen," Reynolds said.
Flannery said he brought the case to Christensen's attention: "We knew that (Delegate) Christensen, as a physician herself, would appreciate how dangerous it was for the prison authorities to withhold proper medical treatment from Dr. Maynard. We are grateful for her immediate action."
Christensen wrote Lappin that "almost from the day of his conviction on St. Thomas, Dr. Maynard has suffered ill effects." She noted that "his blood sugar went up to over 300, a critical level that is almost double what it should be," and "his blood pressure became dangerously elevated when it had been normal beforehand."
Officials have ignored Maynard's repeated requests for medical attention, Christensen wrote: "Since being at MDC Guaynabo prison, as a consequence of not being given any medical help, his health has deteriorated to dangerous levels." She added, "In addition to being severely congested to the point of sometimes having difficulty with breathing, he is now coughing up blood, suffering frequently from diarrhea and, as a consequence, has had an extremely rapid weight loss."
Christensen closes with an assertion that the doctor would not be a flight risk if allowed to return to St. Thomas: “As you may know, Dr. Maynard is a well-regarded member of his community despite his prosecution, and I am confident that there is no danger that he will flee, nor does he present any danger to himself or his community.”
Thanks to Christensen's letter, Flannery said, "Dr. Maynard and his family now have some hope."
In the meantime, Maynard’s patients and family report continued struggles. His sister, Millicent, is working diligently for his release and is worried that he may not survive from week to week: “He is having such trouble breathing now on top of everything else. I wonder what are his rights now? Is this what America stands for?”
The struggle has family members worried about their future, Millicent said: “I am strong when I am on the phone with him, but after I hang up, I just have to cry and cry. What will become of us?”
Maynard's supporters have described him as the only doctor willing to make house calls, including to the bedridden 90-year old mother of June and David Turner. She died two weeks ago.
While Maynard's supporters portray him as a benevolent victim of injustice, the prosecutor who successfully pursued his conviction characterized him very differently. Chisholm described his office as a "grocery store for controlled substances." Instead of referring addicted patients to other medical professionals, she said, Maynard continued to "freely give out the medications," sometimes writing two or three prescriptions for one patient in a day.
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