Lonnie Parker
Do you remember the case of the Arkansas physician who last year was facing federal charges of overprescribing opioids and other controlled substances?
Well, last month, a grand jury in a superseding indictment accused Dr. Lonnie Joseph Parker of Texarkana of causing the death of a patient.
The indictment alleged that Parker on Aug. 1, 2018, “without a legitimate medical purpose” distributed oxycodone to a patient “thereby causing the death” of a person identified in the filing as “N.C.”
Parker also is facing eight other counts of prescribing without a legitimate medical purpose, according to the indictment in U.S. District Court in Texarkana.
“I have done nothing but provide quality medical care to my patients. This patient died in custody due to law-enforcement neglect,” Parker told Whispers last week. “Any objective evaluation of the evidence will prove this.”
One of Parker’s attorneys, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, told Whispers that “we will vigorously contest” the charges.
Parker’s arraignment is set for Aug. 20 via Zoom before Magistrate Judge Barry A. Bryant.
You may remember that in 2000, a U.S. District Court jury in Little Rock found Parker guilty on one count of possession of child pornography, resulting in a 57-month sentence in federal prison. Parker has insisted that the images he received by email were unsolicited and that he was working undercover with federal agents to catch the senders of the illegal pictures.
After his release from prison, Parker applied to the Arkansas State Medical Board for the reinstatement of his medical license in 2005, which was granted.
Parker isn’t allowed to practice medicine while awaiting trial, scheduled for Jan. 19, in U.S. District Court in Texarkana in front of Judge Susan O. Hickey.
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