Followup on the case of the naturopath
It's odd, but very quickly after I wrote about this case, it's been reported that there's a win for the good guys:
It's so rare that these quacks get what's coming to them that it's hard not to rejoice. Let's hope O'Connell spends a good long time behind bars.
A holistic health practitioner who was on trial after a patient died made a surprise guilty plea Wednesday morning after new evidence was discovered, the Jefferson County district attorney's office said.
When confronted with the new evidence, Brian Edward O'Connell, 37, pleaded guilty to theft, perjury, criminally negligent homicide, illegal practice of medicine and third-degree assault. Wednesday was the second day of jury selection and opening statements in his trial were set to begin Thursday.
O'Connell will be sentenced March 27.
Prosecutors say that the new evidence that they received Tuesday night concerned a previous trial. In that 1999 trial O'Connell had testified as an expert witness in the field of toxicology and had claimed to have various medical degrees. Prosecutors now know that he didn't have such degrees then and they planned to file an additional perjury charge.
When prosecutors confronted him with this new information Wednesday morning, O'Connell agreed just to plead guilty.
O'Connell was in charge of Mountain Area Naturopathic Associates in Wheat Ridge. In his office he displayed numerous degrees and certifications claiming he was doctor and a naturopath. The Colorado Medical Board found that he had no license to practice medicine in Colorado and was not certified as any kind of health care worker.
His trial involved the death of 19-year-old Sean Flanagan, who was taken to O'Connell's clinic for alternative treatment. Flanagan suffered from Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of cancer, and had tried chemotherapy and radiation treatment to no avail.
Flanagan's family said he died prematurely because of O'Connell's treatments.
Jeebus, that's a lot of charges, too. It's a rare win, but it's one that's hard to celebrate given the circumstances. One can only hope that legal precedent is set even more firmly for people like this, that they are given pause in the future when considering "practicing" as they do with their snake oils; and of course that those who would annoint themselves in such are given even more pause.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little scary to learn that it takes 6-7 years to find out that the "expert" in a trial really didn't have the medical degrees he claimed.
ReplyDeletesee mr slick in a news clip Made me shudder. I thought he looked just like Buttar, then I thought, no, 1/2 Buttar, 1/2 Bradstreet. eeeew, double slimy.
ReplyDelete