TO: The California Attorney Generals Office:
FROM The: American Society for Action on Pain,
Questions for:
Thomas A. Temmerman,
Gary A. Binkard,
& Mr. Lewis:
Did you lie to "We The People"
under oath in order to hurt the poor,
thus causing this suffering deliberately?
Have your actions caused any deaths by suicide out there?
Have you destroyed the "Pain Patients' Bill of Rights?"
Is this why doctors just don't treat pain in California?
Are you "above the law" Mr. Temmerman?
How many other prosecutors are out there who lie under oath?
If you love America, it's time to stop the lies
of the War On Drugs.
Written by: Skip Baker
Update on Fisher horror story.
(Jan 18, 2001)"Most of you are probably wondering what is going on with the case. There is some good news. Steve Miller has a new attorney, Robert Maloney, who is an experienced Redding attorney and is compassionately inclined towards pain control issues. The Millers feel entirely comfortable with his representation and his commitment to this historic case. The downside is that some time will be required for Mr. Maloney to come up to speed. Trial is currently set for October 9, 2001."
"Many of our patients are still traveling hundreds of miles to obtain pain management which still cannot be found in Shasta County. The resolution of this case is the light at the end of the tunnel. A jury will decide whether or not law enforcement will begin to respect progressive California pain control laws, or if this witch hunt mentality based in the prohibition morality and superstitions of the early 20th century will continue to be inflicted on the poor people of California. An acquittal will signal an end to the systematic persecution of pain sufferers by the Attorney General's office."
"Mr. Hallinan has assembled an all star cast of pain doctors from around the country who support Dr. Fisher's practices. We are entirely confident of a win in October. Dr. Fisher plans to reopen his practice in Shasta county after the trial. The Millers plan to reopen their pharmacy."
Frank B. Fisher MD & Steven Miller & Madeline Miller
Update on Fisher/Miller Case
Hearing Held on Friday September 14, 2001 The hearing on Friday was a success for the defense. While Judge Gallagher ruled against the defense motion to compel election, a compromise was reached which is actually better than winning the motion would have been. The Judge informed the prosecution that they would be restricted during trial to the theory of the case used in presenting the fraud accusations at the preliminary hearing. This means that the prosecution will be limited to trying to prove that prescriptions written for controlled substances were not for legitimate medical purposes. This is a dramatic narrowing of the scope from the 57,000 allegedly fraudulent transactions that Shasta Pharmacy conducted with Medi-Cal during the years of 1997 and 1998 which were written by nearly every doctor in the county. If I haven't explained this adequately, the short version is that our position improved even further as a result of the hearing.
Mr. Temmerman, the current lead prosecutor, agreed for the 3rd time in the last two months to produce the charts to the defense that he intends to use to support his fraud charges. We will see if he keeps his word this time.
A broader view of the case reveals that both original prosecutors have left or been removed. The lead prosecutor, Anthony Lewis has actually left the Attorney General's office entirely, as has the original lead investigator, John Dodson.
Trial remains scheduled for early January 2002. We remain confident of a precedent setting victory which will open the door to a resolution of the ongoing pain crisis. The next court hearing will be Septermber 25, at 1:30 in Judge Gallagher's courtroom.
America watches in amazement while an entire State government stands by like as a "mute monolith" uttering not a word about this clearly false case, brought about by its own out of control prosecutors who are still getting a state paycheck each month, using that money to spread havoc in other innocent lives. The victims suffer on, unable to make a living while their patients have health care blocked from them over this delay in justice. Someone once said "Justice delayed is justice denied." The Governor and/or the Attorney General could make a few simple phone calls to witnesses and discover for themselves that the charges were manufactured by the prosecutors, out of retaliation for the Whistle Blowing work by Madeline Miller aimed at saving lives. Are we seeing the total breakdown of our government for and by the people? Letting this case go on is just as much an "emergency to the State" as classrooms sitting in the dark for a lack of electricity is.
THE STORY OF DR. FISHER
AND THE MILLERS
Another American Horror Story
that could only happen in the
Failed War On Drugs!
Besides Dr. Fisher and the Miller's story here, more doctors are being falsely charged in California, Dr. Boris Pilch and Dr. Dale Kiker. It is my belief that in the cases of many of these other doctors being charged, that they refuesd to testify against Dr. Fisher and were only then singled out for this treatment of false indictments against them! Most people would call that "Legalized Extortion" when we have renagade prosecutors runing around falsely charging anyone that won't do what they ask. Here's an article about these new doctors who have been charged called:
"Doctors Vow To Fight Charges:"
http://www.thetribunenews.com
For 3 generations now we've raised high school kids with no morals. Those kids then in turn raised kids of their own, with no moral compus and no love for the truth. Now what we have as a result are people in power who couldn't care less about the truth, or the nation we love. They will tell any lie and get the media to "go along with" any lie in order to be a success in today's War On Drugs. Anytime you see someone in power supporting this imoral War On Drugs, you can be sure they were raised as one of this last generation of kids, with no moral compus and no love for the truth. This story is what happens to a nation that has lost its way, rejecting all truth:
When the public reads "an indictment" issued by "a State" for crimes, we have a right to expect it to be "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" so help them God. However, when the one getting indicted was involved in whistle-blowing, there is good reason to believe the indictment was "retaliatory in nature" and not based in truth. Especially when that indictment goes against the Pain Patients Bill of Rights and turns out to be a pack of lies like this one designed by Temmerman, Binkard and Lewis. It shows the assume power these kind of prosecutors have and why only the most trustworthy 'lawyers' should be hired for such positions.
Mrs. Madeline Miller, a pain patient herself, was involved in organizing indigent pain patients in a lawsuit against the State of California. Their goal was to regain financial assistance for pain medicine that had been cut off without a fair hearing by the State as required by law. This is not a subjective opinion on their part. A hearing is indeed, required by law before anyone's payment vouchers can be cut off. Yet, many had theirs cut off in violation of that law and these actions against DR. Fisher and the Millers was the result. She had, in fact, just successfully regained lost pain medicine vouchers for one woman. The judge had even agreed that it should never have been taken away in the first place without a hearing. Zealous in her defense of the weak, Mrs. Miller had also brought certain officials before Senator Leroy Greene for violating the Intractable Pain Treatment Act, a bill that he co-authored along with Dr. Harvey L. Rose, MD, and they were reprimanded. Only Americans who suffer with severe pain have any idea how desperate things can get when they are sent to "so called" Pain Clinics that teach worthless hypnosis and other methods for supposedly "treating severe pain." Be sure to also read an example of how they operate with the example of the "Pain Control Clinic at UC Davis." Many of us have been through those clinics at horrific cost to our insurance companies only to come out suffering as badly as we were when we went in.
What followed, in my opinion, was a flagrant example of vindictive drug warriors out of control. Assistant Attorneys General Temmerman, Blinkard and Lewis charged this woman and her husband, Steve Miller, owners of Shasta Pharmacy, with murder no less, in a bizarre investigation that targeted Dr. Frank Fisher. Patients were also harassed and threatened with legal action if they did not provide testimony against the doctor, in what was blatant Witness Tampering that has gone unpunished.
Dr. Fisher was arrested and charged in the murders of three individuals and unbelievably- "with malice aforethought"! These persons had clearly died of other causes. He was thrown into jail, bail was set at 15 million and all his assets were frozen. Imagine contemplating mounting a defense against the awesome resources of the government with all one's assets frozen. The deaths? One was killed in a vehicle accident. Rounding a curve, the door flew open and she was thrown out and undoubtedly killed on impacting a power pole. She had a crushed skull and her abdomen split open. One was at home and died peacefully of natural causes. Her grateful spouse spoke of Dr. Fisher being responsible for having kept her alive and out of pain. The third death was of an ex-patient. It was drug overdose suicide that involved an all day alcohol binge and drugs from a source other than Dr. Fisher and the Miller pharmacy. Incidentally, the provider of the "other drugs" was of no interest to the crusading law enforcers. For the current status of this case please see the Updates link to the the case: Updates. Click here for the short list of Fisher Case Facts. Or see artwork at lower right.
But the horror in America that I enlist you to fight is what transpired here. In the name of The Drug War's high cost in billions, on behalf of you and I as American citizens, thousands of people are put through torture. Doctors fear for their license, their very livelihoods. Our officials have been given greater powers of intimidation, invasion of privacy and their actions go supported at every level of society bolstered by lies, back room deals and perhaps the worst and most dangerous of all- ignorance.
The Amazing UPDATES -- & New Developments from patients: Since we have the other updates from Dr. Fisher now I'm taking down my old story so you can read it directly from the horses mouth from the links at right. Below I will touch on the so called "Pain Relief Promotion Act" and how the Fisher Case shows that this deceptive bill should be killed in the Senate as medical groups come together to fight the bill. Any doctor treating pain as Dr. Fisher did with adequate opioid medication, could be sent to jail for 20 years if the police thought the death was in any way connected to the pain medicine. Rather than "promote" the relief of pain though opioid medication, it would bring it to a grinding halt.
Once you read the story and these Updates here, the story attached at right about Dr. Fisher will be better understood. That this is "official retaliation" against these key witnesses and the woman who was doing the Whistle Blowing, Mrs. Miller, should be fairly clear to the reader. That it's going in other states as well should be shocking to anyone. Just ordinary "Witness Tampering" that we would be arrested for and Indicted for, has clearly been done here in both cases. On 60 Minutes this year we've learned that out of the 24 people on Death Row in Illinois, 14 were completely innocent of the murder they were said to have committed. We are seeing a NEW ERA where prosecutors will tell any falsehood to convict innocent people. What you'll see here in the Fisher/Miller Case is just the tip of the iceberg, and every American should be alarmed over these events. When we add to that the case of Dr. Graves in Florida and also Dr. Metellus we must ask: What is happening to our country? It's rather simple really, procecutors have discovered that they can "get credit" for fighting the War On Drugs if they falsely charge doctors who treat pain, with some kind of made up "drug charge." They then get the doctor to "cop a plea" to some lessor crime that they also didn't do, and the prosecutor gets his or her name in the media as "a great Drug Warrior."
Everyone wins except the We The People.
Dr. Fisher was keeping people off welfare and working, not to mention alive. So many who had nearly given up and decided to take their own lives had found him instead. See how pain medicine can keep a patient alive and how one man flew from Perth to Dr. Fisher to keep his pain under control so he could work in the Fisher Patient Down Under.
Now for the Updates in this case: It looks like "The State" is now so alarmed about this case, that powerful persons "working for the state" must be turning to "Witness Tampering" to keep from losing. I've learned that one of the Witnesses for Dr. Fisher and or the Millers, got a "threatening phone call." The caller told the witness that if he testified in this court case for the doctor, that they would make sure that he "never received adequate pain treatment" again in the state of California. The witness has caller ID, yet it showed it was an unknown number on the read out! He had the presence of mind to use Star 69 to trace the call, but the recording at the phone company said the number was out of service! Who would have the wherewithal and the power to set up a phone number and call like that which isn't even in service?
Only the "State Officials" who are the prosecutors in this case, in an Abuse of Power and a Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice or RICO violation, could do this kind of thing. Once again, we see how "officials" who are supposed to be 'working for us,' or We The People, are actually out there committing Crimes Against Humanity and getting by with it without being indicted by the very system they work for! Anytime "Torture" is used against a people by a government, no matter if it's a 'State Government' or a "Third World Dictatorship" it's a "Crime Against Humanity," and even the withholding of pain medicine from patients suffering in pain, is torture. That system is supposed to be working for us. This must change, and We The People must ask Janet Reno to have the US Justice Department indict officials in every state where this kind of thing is going on. Like Rome, we will collapse from the internal rot of our governments if we don't. Rome was the "Super Power" of the day, and no outside army could defeat them. Yet once internal corruption became so widespread, Rome fell. We've now got similar events going on in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Florida against innocent doctors given all kinds of false charges against them because they tried to treat pain properly. Now with the new case of Dr. Graves in Florida, we will be able to show you the reader, a case from "Start to Finish" and how "officials" misrepsent the facts about pain doctors in order to get this "fake credit" for fighting the War On Drugs in their local media, when in fact they were doing no such thing.
The Second Update: 2 Events: 1. One patient, Toni Briano told me that when the news cameras and the media were outside at one of the Fisher/Miller hearings, that she was told by Mr. Binkard that he would give her back her vital medical records, kept by them for so long, so she could find another doctor to treat her pain and suffering. Once the cameras were gone however, she was not able to get her records back from the State as promised and she suffered excruciating pain as a result. IF on the other hand she had changed sides and had been willing to testify against Dr. Fisher and the Millers for Mr. Binkard, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Temmerman, I feel she would have had no problem getting her medical records and the pain medicine she needed. Indeed she was told this by the police that came to her home at one point.
Without medical records, no doctor will treat a patient's pain and since "the State" would not return these patients records, many of them contacted us in a panic and on the edge of suicide. "The State" was trying to force them to lie against Dr. Fisher and the Millers and this made it very hard to find any other doctors to treat them. Mr. Bill Lockyer the present Attorney General should have fired those persons on the spot for that but we doubt they've told the Attorney General the truth about the case and he has no idea what's going on under his name! At trial the Jury needs to know this has been going on so they'll know that if there are ANY witnesses for the state, they have most likely been extorted into testifying. The suffering Toni went through is a story in itself. Agents came to her house and did what in my opinion was even more "Witness Tampering" trying to get her to lie in Court, implying that if she didn't "help them" with those falsehoods, she too would never be able to get pain medicine in the State of California again, just like the man above who received the "threatening phone call." What IS going on in America?
Note: Dr. Fisher now has his own web page up, with Court Documents actually showing the places where they lied about him and the Millers. With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, something has happened that the deception of the War On Drugs never dreamed could take place: Their deceptions would be laid open for anyone willing to do the research can find the wrongdoing. Here's Dr. Fisher's main web page:
Concepts violated by California against Dr. Fisher and the Millers that are best presented at this web site on the Drug War using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our Constitution: http://www.hr95.org/Udhr.htmlUniversal Declaration of Human Rights Article 5
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Violated in the Fisher/Miller case many times over.
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution also protects prisoners against cruel and unusual punishment, specifically banning excessive bail and fines. That Amendment was violated by the AG's office when it set Dr. Fisher's bail at 15 MILLION dollars! Those officials named at the top should be indicted based on that fact alone.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 10
"Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him."
The Constitution guarantees a jury trial, both in criminal cases (Sixth Amendment) and in common law civil suits involving a value over $20 (Seventh Amendment).
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 11.1
"Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense."
"The Fifth Amendment further adds the right to a speedy trial and right to legal counsel and forbids the use of secret witnesses by requiring their testimony in court."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 12
"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
The Fourth Amendment protects the people from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by requiring that "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Violated many times in the Fisher/Miller case.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 16.3
"The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state."
"The Fourth Amendment lists "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects". Again, violated many times by police and the three state officials in the AG's office.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 17.2
"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property."
"The US Constitution Fifth Amendment also promises that no American shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". The 3 Assistant Attorneys General and their helpers in law enforcement, saw to it that $60,000 worth of medication being shipped to the Miller's Drug Store, vanished and ended up on the street while under their supervision. Those pills were "stolen" from the Millers by law enforcement. Here's a case where "State Officials" actually put conficated drugs on the streets of America and have not been indicted for it! EVery American should be outraged, but the evil doers are counting on the control of the press to keep the lid on things. Their trial has been repeately set back as the officials keep hoping that they'll "cut a deal" under pressure. But Dr. Fisher and the Millers won't do that like so many doctors had before them. In desperation the State Officials are falsely indicting other doctors in hopes of leaving Fisher with no other doctors who treat pain right in California, free to testify for him. Pain Doctors in California are being Extorted to testify against Dr. Fisher.
Universal Declaration on Human Rights Article 25.1
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services."
US Constitution Ninth Amendment stipulates: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Universal Declaration on Human Rights Article 26
26.2: "Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for humans rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship."
26.3: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given totheir children."
In place of "Education" Americans are given The Enforced Propaganda of Lies about drugs that has the nation thinking pain patients would have a 90% chance of becoming "addicted" if they used narcotics for pain control. While the US Government has found there's only a 0.03% chance that a pain patient would become 'addicted' from using opioid pain medicine. Only 7 patients out of 24,000 had such problems in the NIDA Study. They then used the press to make Dr. Miller and the Fishers look like Drug Dealers. That Right to True Education on drugs has been violated by DEA and other arms of our government.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 8
"Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law."
The US Constitution First Amendment promises the right to "petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
That Right was violated in the Fisher/Miller case many times over.
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the UN in 1948 as a response to the Nazi holocaust and to set a standard by which the human rights activities of all nations, rich and poor alike, are to be measured."
Again see "Human Rights and the US Drug War" here for more:
S. 1272 & the Fisher Case: How that pickup crash in the Fisher case and the wrongful charge of "murder" impacts on a new bill before the United States Congress, must now be looked at here in this story: As a group of doctors wrote to the Judiciary Committee about the bill they said: "Dear Senator: As physicians from throughout the nation whose specialty is the practice of pain medicine, we are alarmed at the chilling effect that the proposed "Pain Relief Promotion Act" (S. 1272, H. 2260) will have on the care and treatment of patients with serious pain, especially older patients."
This is EXACTLY WHY I went to Washington two weeks ago and spoke in a news conference, along with Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, against that so called "Pain Relief Promotion Act." (We call it the "Pain Relief PREVENTION Act, because of the hidden rules in it that would prevent doctors from treating pain! Most Senators would think it would improve Pain Relief because of the name, but that name was picked because of its power to deceive.) If a doctor would help a patient to die by giving him "too much" pain medicine under that bill, the doctor could face 20 years in jail. That does NOT "Promote" pain relief, it PREVENTS' it! We feel that IF those of us who are ON "high dose" pain medicine, like the woman thrown from the pickup truck, would die of some "other cause" also that our doctors may be charged with our deaths based on "an overdose" when in fact that wouldn't be the case at all! It takes dozens of times more pain medicine to control our pain, than the average person. Therefore, our doctors would stop treating our pain at our current levels if this bill became law. Rep. Henry Hyde wanted to push through this bill to counter or defeat the Oregon Suicide Law! Rather than write a Federal Law aimed directly at that, he tried to "hide" or "Hyde" it in this Pain Relief PREVENTION Act, causing a great deal of confusion for all.
There are many coroners like the one in California in the Fisher case, who could also make THAT SAME big mistake, and not take into account how acclimated we'd become to the pain medicine, and would wrongly THINK we'd died from the amount of narcotic in our bodies. This when it would really take far more than that massive amount to kill any of us! This case in California is proof that the Pain Relief Promotion Act would cause wide spread but secret suicides nationwide! MOST Pain Patients who use suicide as their way out of pain, find ways to make it secret so as to save the family the grief of that act, and often to make sure they get their insurance money. 92% of those who belong to our group have thought of suicide as a way out, and 100% of THEM that I've talked to about it, said they sought ways to hide the true cause of their deaths if they were going to be forced to "do it" so their loved ones would never know the truth. Most suicides over untreated pain are done in secret!
Re: Fisher Case (Dr. Fisher belongs to a Discussion Group on the net made up of good pain doctors who are treating pain right. The subject of "amount" came up and it was discovered that others had patients on doses just as high as doctor Fisher. Here's a reply to one post by Dr. Fisher):
Dr. (Withheld),
Thank you for the information. I did indeed have between 100-200 serious chronic pain patients using Oxycontin. I never really thought about the volume of opioids going out to my practice as a whole, until the State Attorney General's agents arrested me and brought it to my attention.
My focus was on doing the right thing for each individual patient.
Frank B. Fisher MD
Convicts are ASKED indeed FORCED to lie about innocent people in this insane War On Drugs! Nobody is safe under that system, especially now in California since we see the false charges made against Dr. Fisher. Be SURE and buy the film SNITCH, your country is hanging by a thread and you need to know:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/
Secret editing of Hollywood scripts as exposed by Dan Forbes at Salon.com on how the Drug Czar was approving or changing some scripts for the Drug War Propaganda from his White House office.
Chronic Pain in California
Madeline & Stephen Miller's poem about this case:I am a chronic pain person and advocate, with compassion for people in pain.
I went to the State Senate to speak out for these people, not for personal gain.Laws have been passed to allow people with chronic pain their needed relief,
But when doctors prescribe, the DEA gives the doctors so much grief.90 patients filed Administrative Law hearings and one was tried.
The judge said she won. She should get what she had been denied.Within three weeks I was arrested and one of the charges, with intentional sass,
According to the State Attorney Generals office, I was a "PAIN IN THE ASS!"They took all our money, then took me to jail
For 5 months, held on $3,000,000.00 in unlawful bail.The prelim. was 7 weeks of accusations, we offered no defense,
Then the judge said the "murder" charges didn't make any sense.They expected to find corruption, but instead found "good faith,"
But now doctors won't treat pain. For them it's just not safe.A patient must suffer so his doctor isn't "noticed" by a drug cop.
Safe and effective drugs are available. This insanity must STOP!The "War on Drugs" is supposed to stop things that are bad,
But when it becomes a "War on People in Pain" it is very sad.By Madeline & Stephen Miller
(owners of Shasta Pharmacy until it was shut down for treating pain patients) Can you imagine being charged with "murder" by those three guys above, Timmerman, Lewis and Binkard, because you tried to help pain patients? While the member above tells how they sell drugs openly at stop signs? Why is it that these three Assistant Attorneys General haven't been down to that street corner making arrests of those selling crack openly? Skip.
From a Member in California:"...and it's not JUST houses, Skip, the first time that I went there, I made the mistake of stopping at a STOP sign.. at least 6 or 7 guys ran up to my car, drugs in hand, attempting to sell to me RIGHT THERE, on the corner! I couldn't believe my eyes! Our docs are being raided, their patients left with no pain relief, but hey, I know EXACTLY where to go if it were crack that I wanted... somehow, I think the DEA knows this as well. Wishing you a pain free day..."
One might ask, why is it that the Attorney General's Office permits these drug sales to go on in the open on that street corner but instead charges an innocent doctor with "murders" that never happened because he was treating pain right? Skip.