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Ex-physician serving time in sex and drugs case asks sentence modification
Almost exactly one year to the day he pled guilty to five felony counts of unlawfully dispensing narcotics to patients -- sometimes in exchange for sexual favors -- a former Roachdale physician is asking that his prison sentence be modified.
Ray D. Howell, 58, who pled guilty last June 21 to five of the 15 counts against him, was ordered to serve four years in the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) followed by two years suspended and probation in a sentence imposed by Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley.
A little more than 10 months after that Aug. 13 sentencing, Howell's new Indianapolis attorney, Jay L. Clifford, is claiming the former physician's reported frontotemporal dementia condition is worsening.
In a petition for sentence modification filed Wednesday in Putnam Circuit Court, Clifford claims that since Howell's incarceration, his condition "has deteriorated significantly."
The attorney notes that he attempted to meet with Howell at the New Castle Correctional Facility where he is incarcerated. However, Clifford said that due to his client's medical condition he was only able to have "limited interaction" with him.
Consequently, the defense counsel believes that because of Howell's condition, continued rehabilitation in the DOC "will not have any meaningful purpose" for Howell, whom he suggests "is not a threat to re-offend."
"Additionally," the petition notes, "Howell's appreciation of the purpose of his incarceration at this point is limited, rendering any punitive purpose of his incarceration moot."
Clifford said he has contacted the DOC regional re-entry coordinator concerning possible placement for Howell if he is released.
"Should the court grant a sentence modification," the petition states, "Howell appears to be eligible for nursing home placement."
The petition requests that the court set a video conference hearing prior to Aug. 15 and order DOC to prepare a report on Howell's conduct and adjustment while incarcerated.
Putnam County Prosecutor Timothy Bookwalter is opposed to any sentence modification for Howell.
"I strongly object," he said Thursday. "This is just a rehash of excuses that he gave at his sentencing. I have a hard time believing that his alleged frontal lobe dementia made him proposition female patients for nearly a decade."
Bookwalter called the argument "sort of a new take on (comic) Flip Wilson's old skit, 'The devil made me do it.'"
Frontotemporal dementia is defined as a progressive neurological disorder caused by degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain, which Howell's previous attorney, Dennis Zahn of Indianapolis, tried to use as part of his defense last summer. Any alleged effects of the disorder on Howell and his actions, however, did not sway Judge Headley's sentencing decision.
"Your lawyer makes a passionate plea for you, that's for sure," Headley told Howell last August, "but the problem is you placed these people's lives in your hands.
"You caused drug addictions to people," the judge continued, noting that one patient/victim was pregnant and gave birth to a child with drug addiction and another was so strung out on narcotics she "lost her family for a while" and entered into an illicit affair with the doctor.
Gary Wisenand, the principal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigator on the case, explained how treatments and prescriptions administered by Howell were linked to sexual encounters with female patients at Tri-County Family Medical Clinic in Roachdale, which Howell operated for more than 20 years.
"Hugs progressed to back rubs and then to butt rubs and then him suggesting masturbation to relieve anxiety. He would try to kiss them, and if allowed to go further, it would end up in situations of oral sex or sexual intercourse," the DEA investigator added.
The defense tried to tie those situations to Howell's disease, which one doctor's report suggested began to manifest itself six to eight years ago.
"Dr. Howell is a different person today than he was 10 years ago," his attorney said. "Back then he was a small-town doc, conscientious, community-minded, involved in his church and his Bible studies."
"He was a man who took pride in his reputation," Zahn added. "But several years ago that began to change" and Howell began to exhibit some "rather odd behavior."
A letter to the court from his wife, Linda Howell, stressed that he was not the evil person people think he is, and that his "mental illness has taken over his ability to be rational."
"Dr. Howell won't make it in a penitentiary," Zahn said, claiming that with his disorder, Howell is "essentially a prisoner now. He cannot go out. He must have supervision."
Prosecutor Bookwalter, however, took issue with the idea of blaming Howell's actions on his mental state.
"We know he was having sex with a patient and drugging her up in 1991," he said, responding to the 6-8 year timeframe tied to the supposed effects of Howell's dementia.
"We have a Jekyll and Hyde here," Bookwalter added. "When he goes to that medical office, he becomes a different animal."
As part of a plea agreement last June, Howell may never reapply for his medical license or DEA registration "during his natural lifetime."
As part of that agreement, Howell pled guilty to:
-- Unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, dispensing Adipex to an Indiana State Police undercover officer.
-- Unlawful dispensation of a controlled substance, Oxycodone, in excessive amounts to a patient.
-- Unlawful dispensation of a controlled substance, Clonazepam, in excessive amounts to a patient, including its use to facilitate sexual encounters.
-- Unlawful dispensation of a controlled substance, Oxycodone, Methadone and/or Alprazolam to a patient in excessive amounts.
-- Furnishing false or fraudulent information or knowingly omitting information from a controlled substance inventory.
In exchange for the five guilty pleas, the state agreed to dismiss 10 other charges against Howell.
The doctor's arrest on Oct. 18, 2011 culminated a more than two-year investigation by local, state and federal authorities that revealed Howell overprescribed or unnecessarily prescribed narcotics that included Oxycodone, Methadone, Adipex, Clonazepam, Lortab, Vicodin, Alprazolam, Xanax, Percocet and Hydrocodone.
The probe also yielded reports of several alleged sexual encounters with a number of female patients to whom he had reportedly prescribed excessive doses of controlled substances.