THE United States Attorney’s Office for Guam and the CNMI has issued 27 third-party subpoenas to 10 providers involved with medical care, two insurance companies, two medical licensing boards, and two continuing medical education organizations in the civil litigation against a physician accused of violating the Controlled Substance Act.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Wessling withdrew the federal government’s request to extend discovery and trial schedules in the civil action after the defendant, Dr. John Doyle, through his attorney, Steven Pixley, filed an opposition.
Pixley in his opposition stated that the USAO’s proposed scheduling order contemplates, at the very least, depositions of additional fact witnesses and an expansion of the scope of discovery.
“This would cause a burden to Dr. Doyle in responding to that additional discovery and a delayed trial date,” Pixley said.
Doyle has denied the allegations against him.
Instead of extending discovery schedules, Wessling has requested the federal court’s permission to exceed the three-fact deposition limitation in standard track cases and to depose two witnesses in January 2022, after the Jan. 3, 2021 discovery cutoff date.
She said: “The plaintiff disagrees that there was a lack of diligence in its efforts to meet the discovery schedule. While it is true that depositions have not been taken yet by the plaintiff, the reason for that is the volume of records that needed to be obtained, reviewed and analyzed to determine which witnesses would likely have pertinent information. Both patients at issue in this case were seen at several facilities in the Northern Mariana Islands and the mainland, including hospitalizations that necessitated treatment and care by numerous physicians and medical staff.”
The plaintiff has also been actively locating and contacting fact witnesses, Wessling added.
She said, “The condition and medical treatment of the two patients at issue in this case when they were seen by other physicians during the time they were under defendant’s care are essential to the legal issue of whether the defendant’s prescriptions were issued for a legitimate purpose and within the course of standard practice.”
She added, “Their hospitalizations and injuries sustained as a result of the dangerous controlled substances prescribed by the defendant must be adequately discovered so that the court may have the benefit of all pertinent facts.”
According to Wessling, “Plaintiff did not request depositions until November 2, 2021. This was not due to a lack of diligence or carelessness, but [it] was because the [U.S.] government has been using this time to gather and review all of the relevant records in advance of depositions to help ensure that the depositions are efficient, productive and thorough — and to narrow the number of necessary depositions (as the number of fact witnesses is extensive).”
Doyle indicated in a letter dated Nov. 10, 2021, that he is available for depositions through the end of December 2021.
The sole court reporter in the CNMI has also indicated that she is available during this time, the prosecutor said.
“While the plaintiff appreciates the defendant’s accommodation and flexibility, the plaintiff is also mindful that many of the fact witnesses are physicians who will need to clear their patient schedules for deposition, some witnesses may be traveling during the holiday season, and two important fact witnesses are not currently available (one of the patients at issue in this case is currently off-island for medical reasons and a physician who was concurrently prescribing controlled substances to one of the patients at issue in this case is out of the country).”
District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy, at a status conference on Tuesday, said the fact discovery cutoff is still Jan. 3, 2021.
“Parties may have two additional depositions after the fact discovery cutoff date,” she added.
She set the deadline for fact discovery motions for Jan. 31, 2022, while the discovery hearing was set for Feb. 24, 2022.
Judge Kennedy also directed the parties to prepare an amended scheduling order and include the number of fact witnesses depositions the parties agreed to.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Guam and the CNMI wants Dr. John Doyle to pay civil penalties in the total amount of $4,936,771 for allegedly dispensing opioids and controlled substances.
The U.S. government filed the civil action on March 3, 2021.
Doyle, through his defense attorney, denied each allegation and demanded a jury trial in response to the civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. government.
