Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer - When a drug arrest saves a life...

By Nick Dorsten, Esq.

While I have written often in the past about the scourge of prescription drug abuse in this part of Florida (see here, here or here,the tampabay website has an article that talks about how one man got his life back by GOING to prison...

— When a police officer knocked on the door of Dr. Kevin Denny's home around 9 one morning in 2009, Denny opened it barefoot and bleary eyed, wearing a terry cloth robe. Cars were being broken into in his Pinellas County beach neighborhood, said the officer. Could Denny come out and check his?

Within seconds, a dozen federal and local cops swarmed around the doctor who had once treated the powerful and prominent, guns aimed.

He was under arrest, they told him, for illegally prescribing pain pills.

The 55-year-old doctor's fall was long, hard and spectacular: An internist with sterling credentials and a successful practice in St. Petersburg, Florida for more than a decade, Denny lost it all to his own cocaine and alcohol addictions. To fuel his $125-a-day crack habit, he embarked on a new career: pill mill doctor, writing illegal prescriptions for OxyContin to addicts he met over a beer at a chicken wing restaurant.

Denny, who once led his fellow residents at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, ended his medical career in the fellowship of doctors who enable addicts to get legal narcotics. Unlike street drugs, the prescription trade requires doctors to keep it going. It is considered deadlier than trafficking in heroin and cocaine, killing an average of seven people a day in Florida.

Yet even in the Sunshine State, widely considered ground zero for the illicit prescription narcotic trade, relatively few doctors are even arrested, let alone convicted. Because these drugs do have a valuable medical purpose — controlling severe pain — and are legal if properly dispensed, it is tough to stop a pill mill doctor.

What kind of doctor gets into the business of harming and possibly killing people?

Many pill mill doctors didn't make much of a mark in medicine and have retired. "These doctors often have few opportunities in their later years,'' said a state special prosecutor for prescription drug trafficking.

When law enforcement moves in, the common reaction is for doctors to say they were railroaded, said an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County.

Then there's Kevin Denny — skilled practitioner and deeply repentant.

"Except for Denny, I don't know of any cases of doctors immediately admitting guilt and apologizing,'' said a narcotics detective for the Pinellas Sheriff's Office.

After his May 2009 arrest, Denny pleaded guilty, went to rehab, and started his 70-month prison sentence in October 2010.

"The last thing I wanted to do was hurt people. But I did,'' he said in a three-hour interview at the federal prison on Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.

He says he is grateful he was stopped after a few months of scribbling prescriptions for addicts. He knows what could have happened.

"Thank God nobody died," he said of his "patients.''

But Denny believes he came close to killing himself.

• • •

In his earliest memory, Kevin Denny wanted to be a doctor.

He was 4, standing by his dying grandfather's bed. The old man moaned in pain. Denny's mother wept. The child made a promise to help the suffering.

No one in his family had ever made it beyond high school. His dad was a punch card operator, his mom a housewife.

They were strict Southern Baptists, and for Denny and his two sisters, their modest Kansas City home was a "serious place," he said. He remembers his parents worrying about his tie-dyed T-shirt and his hair growing over his ears.

He was smart, athletic, good looking and determined. In the National Honor Society, and an all-conference athlete in four sports, he was on track to achieve his dream: getting into a program at the University of Missouri where he could earn both his bachelor's and medical degrees in just six years.

His parents helped with tuition and he loaded boxes at Sears to earn money.

There were cracks in the success story. He got his girlfriend pregnant during senior year of high school, and the couple married. His parents divorced when he was 18. He tried LSD — once.

"But the feeling of escaping to an alternate reality was something I'd later crave," he said.

In medical school, he made an impression.

"Kevin Denny stood out," said an emeritus professor, "because he was so genuinely caring."

The professor recommended him for a residency at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, where he was assigned the nerve-racking job of leading the Code Blue resuscitation team. Fellow doctors so respected his calm focus under stress they elected him chief resident.

After four years, he got another sought-after position, studying heart transplant techniques at McGuire VA Hospital in Virginia.

He was recruited by St. Petersburg Medical Clinic in the late 1980s as an internist and specialist in vascular medicine. He loved the work and his patients. He also loved weekends of diving, fishing and Jack Daniels.

"I worked hard; I played hard — I lived to extremes," he said.

• • •

By the early '90s, he was living with his second wife and their three children in a big waterfront house in St. Petersburg.

For six years, Denny cared for a multitude of patients, treating the sick and dying.

At home, Denny was another man entirely, said son Stephen Denny, 36, the child from Denny's first marriage. What started as a fun evening would usually end with his drunken father becoming verbally abusive over some perceived slight, the son said.

"My dad at work was a different person from my dad at home," said Stephen Denny.

• • •

Wife No. 3, said Denny would come home from work and head straight to the fridge to guzzle four tallboy beers while he stood there with the door open. Then, he'd start in on the Jack Daniels.

"I begged Kevin to get help, but he was afraid if he did he'd lose his medical license," she said.

"I was afraid I'd lose my practice,'' Denny agreed.

"But I was also afraid I'd have to stop drinking and face what a bad problem I had."

Meanwhile, he was rated one of the top cardiovascular specialists in the Southeast by Best Doctors in America, which asks doctors to rate their peers.

"He eventually ran into a lot of trouble,'' said a former patient, a retired Pinellas Judge. "But, for years, he was an excellent diagnostician — one of the best doctors I've ever had."

After his divorce from his wife in 1997, Denny said he got heavily into snorting cocaine, smoking marijuana and hanging out at strip clubs. Up all night partying, he would be too tired to go to work. He had formed a professional partnership with three colleagues. But as his life unraveled, his partners and administrators at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg were concerned for him and angry that he was letting his patients down.

At their urging, he called a referral service for doctors with substance abuse problems. When the counselor said his medical license might be suspended, Denny hung up, he said, and never called back.

• • •

Kevin Denny's daughter used to spend every other weekend with her father after her parents divorced at his 4,000-square-foot, Tudor-style home in Tierra Verde, across the street from the gulf.

But after her father married a fourth time in 2006 and retreated into crack cocaine, the house became "home to the living dead" and she quit visiting, said the girl, now a senior in college.

By 2007, his work habits were so erratic, he was fired from his practice and lost his contract with St. Anthony's.

Still, said a former patient, a retired Pinellas County court magistrate, Denny saved her life because he diagnosed her auto-immune diseases and quickly got her to specialists.

"I vacillate between being furious at Kevin for not getting help sooner and having my heart broken,'' she said.

"Because he was such a great doctor who was throwing everything away."

He was years behind in alimony and child support and owed more than $100,000 in back taxes. His wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. His children wouldn't speak to him. His house was in foreclosure.

"Game on. Slow suicide," he said of this time.

By late 2008, Denny didn't expect to live much longer. He was having trouble breathing and his legs were swollen, both results of the booze and the crack, he said.

For Christmas, he gave his children his prized possessions: a collection of first edition books, an expensive tennis racket. And the doubled-edged razor his grandfather carried through the trenches of France in World War I — the same grandfather by whose bed a young Denny had stood, pledging to ease suffering.

"Despite all of the terrible things I've done, I hope someone will remember the years I kept that promise," he said.

• • •

In early 2009, he was approached by the manager of a pain clinic on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa and offered a job — $300 on the days he worked — which was enough to feed his crack and booze addictions.

"It was a pill mill. The people who came in were addicted. I was addicted. It was a nightmare," he said.

"But I was too far gone to care."

A few months after he wrote the prescriptions at the wing restaurant, police came to his house.

"They saved my life," he said.

His lawyer, a criminal defense attorney, who has defended other doctors and pain clinic owners, said Denny is unique.

"He actually welcomed prison," said the attorney. "The only thing Kevin wants people to realize is that addiction is a disease — a disease that's treatable, which means you can recover and perhaps shouldn't lose your medical license for the rest of your life."

But Denny did.

In prison, he gets up at 5:30 a.m. and sweeps and mops the floors. Afternoons, he mows the long grass on the side of the road. He is tanned and muscular now, his blue eyes clear. He has been clean and sober for two years.

• • •

Before he started his sentence, Denny was at home. A white SUV pulled into the driveway and a man wearing a dark tie and white shirt knocked on the door and handed him a paper to sign.

It began, "Kevin Mark Denny, MD hereby voluntarily relinquishes his license to practice medicine..."

Have you been arrested on prescription pill or trafficking in oxycodone charges? Then the Pinellas, Florida based Blake & Dorsten, P.A. Pinellas criminal defense lawyers are at your service.

For more information, or to speak directly with experienced Pinellas County criminal defense attorneys, please contact the law firm of BLAKE AND DORSTEN, P.A. at 727.286.6141 or email the defense lawyers at: info@blakedorstenlaw.com

Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer - St. Petersburg drug sting leads to crash

By Nicholas Dorsten, Esq.

From the tampa bay website...

ST. PETERSBURG — A 22-year-old St. Petersburg man led police on a pursuit reaching speeds of 90 mph and injuring two after a drug sting Saturday, police said.

The incident began about 10:15 p.m. after police said the criminal defendant sold six crack cocaine rocks to a St. Pete Beach police informer for $70.

After the deal, an officer on a motorcycle tried to pull over his black Chevrolet Impala on 75th Avenue and Blind Pass Road.

But the defendant cut between two other vehicles to try to get away. At Boca Ciega Drive, he slammed on the brakes in an attempt to strike the officer, police said. Then he tried to turn into the officer as the officer was trying to avoid the crash, police said.

The man then drove the wrong way on the Treasure Island Causeway, police said, striking another car.

The occupants were injured. A female was taken to Bayfront Medical Center with serious injuries. The other man's condition was not available.

Police say they found 5.2 grams of crack cocaine in the Impala.

The suspect was held at the Pinellas County Jail on $45,650 bail.

Another man, 22, of St. Petersburg was also arrested. Police said he was at the drug deal and a passenger during the chase. He was released from the jail after posting $5,000 bail.

Have you or a loved one been arrested for a possession of controlled substance or drug trafficking? Then contact the St. Petersburg criminal defense attorneys of Blake & Dorsten, P.A. for a free consultation!

For more information, or to speak directly with experienced St. Petersburg criminal defense lawyers please contact BLAKE & DORSTEN, P.A. at 727.286.6141 or email the lawyers your questions at: info@blakedorstenlaw.com. We are located at 4707 140th Ave N, Suite 104 in Clearwater, across from the criminal courthouse in the airport business center, minutes from Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer - America's Most Wanted

By Nicholas Dorsten, Esq.

A St. Petersburg, Florida fugitive is to be featured on an upcoming episode of "America's Most Wanted"

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Elrick Bernard "Big E" Wynn made millions pushing crack cocaine in the 1990s, authorities say, building the biggest drug syndicate in city history by the age of 27.

The U.S. Attorney's Office called the Wynn organization the "Microsoft" of St. Petersburg, Florida when the law broke up the violent drug ring in 1998. But its Bill Gates had already escaped.

Wynn learned the business from the drug kingpins before him, authorities say, then supplanted and surpassed them. But they got caught. He got away, thanks to a last-minute tip.

It has been 14 years since anyone with a badge has laid eyes on Wynn. Those who still see him tell police he's like a "ghost."

Did he fake his death or was he killed? Did he flee to the Virgin Islands? Does he still scratch his gambling itch in Las Vegas and Biloxi? Does he still sneak into town to visit his mother and family?

Deputy U.S. Marshal Lisa Alfonso is pretty sure that last rumor is true: "He's a momma's boy," she said.

Wynn, who is wanted on multiple federal drug charges, was be showcased on Saturday's America's Most Wanted at 9 p.m. on WTVT-Ch. 13. U.S. marshals are also offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest. Authorities hope that will help them finally capture him.

Not only is he considered armed and dangerous, but authorities say the 6-foot-2, 260-pound fugitive may be sporting something else:

A woman's wig, lipstick, fake eyelashes and a blouse.

• • •

In 2009 there were 11 murders in St. Petersburg, Florida the city's lowest number of homicides in 40 years. Compare that with 1989, the height of the crack epidemic: There were 44 murders that year, the highest number on record.

Robert Earl "Wonderman" Lee was the first of St. Petersburg's crack kingpins. When authorities shut him down in 1989, they said the family had already made millions. Lee once lost $30,000 because he forgot he had stashed it in the garbage. In 1990, he and his brother Roy Larry Lee were sentenced to life in prison.

A year later residents lined the sidewalks of Bartlett Park and cheered as officers led away their successor: Ronald Eugene "Romeo" Mathis.

Once a cog in the Lee operation, authorities said, Mathis went on to build a sophisticated machine that sold drugs in three shifts 24 hours a day, brought in $300,000 a week and left residents terrified.

"I'll be back," said a smiling, handcuffed Mathis, according to a 1991 news story detailing his arrest.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 1994.

Next up, authorities say, was Elrick Wynn.

• • •

Wynn worked for both the Wonderman Lee and Romeo Mathis organizations, said St. Petersburg narcotics Detective Mike Celona.

"Elrick Wynn had been an important player," Celona said. "Mathis and Jeffrey Lee were Wynn's mentors. He learned a lot from them and built up a vast organization. He controlled a majority of the crack and powder cocaine in St. Pete."

Wynn wasn't as flashy as his predecessors, authorities say, but he was more productive: They estimate his organization moved a total of one ton — 50 to 100 pounds a month — of crack cocaine in and out of St. Petersburg, Florida from 1993 to 1998. Authorities estimate he made $700,000 a month and more than $8 million a year.

Wynn drove with a small arsenal that included grenades. He also carried brown paper bags filled with thousands that he gambled on games of pool and high-stakes poker every night.

But in 1998, it was the Wynn organization's turn to fall.

• • •

Authorities believe they just missed him during the raids that year. He was tipped off, they say, by an associate who was arrested as he got off the phone from warning Wynn.

Detective Celona said there were rumors at the time that Wynn was killed by a former lieutenant or faked his own death (his motorcycle was later found abandoned on the side of a road.) But authorities actually believe he could still be in the drug trade and may be traveling between Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Richmond.

"They call him a ghost," Alfonso said of the fugitive's known associates. "They say he comes and goes."

Money isn't an issue for Wynn, authorities say. He may also have another advantage: impeccable fake credentials. One of the men authorities arrested in 1998 was a driver's license clerk who they say provided Wynn and his employees with legitimate Florida driver's licenses issued to fake names. Authorities say they still have no idea how many of those IDs he may have.

"He's a little more sophisticated than most fugitives," Alfonso said.

• • •

Wynn is 41 now. He is wanted on federal charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.

Authorities believe he still likes to gamble. They think he still has a tattoo on his left bicep that says "THE WYNN." He was spotted with a beard two years ago in Ocala. But closer to home he has been spotted in a new disguise:

Witnesses have reported seeing the imposing fugitive wearing a woman's wig, fake eyelashes, makeup and blouse.

"Can he pull it off?" Celona said.

"Some folks say he did lose some weight," Alfonso said.

The authorities believe he uses that disguise to visit his mother and family and drive around St. Petersburg without scrutiny.

His mother, Margianna Speights, once told a federal grand jury she doesn't know where her son is. Alfonso said the U.S. marshals aren't sure of that, but hope she's able to deliver this message:

"My advice to his mother is to get him to turn himself in peacefully," Alfonso said. "We consider him armed and dangerous, and if we get a tip, we're coming with everything we've got."

Have you or someone you love been arrested for possession of cocaine or drug charges? Then call the St. Petersburg criminal defense lawyers of Blake & Dorsten, P.A. today!

For more information, or to speak directly with experienced criminal defense lawyers please contact BLAKE & DORSTEN, P.A. at 727.286.6141 or email the lawyers your questions at: info@blakedorstenlaw.com. We are located at 4707 140th Ave N, Suite 104 in Clearwater, across from the criminal courthouse in the airport business center, minutes from Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer - more Bucs Part 1

By Nicholas Dorsten, Esq.

Fresh off the heels of other Tampa Bay Buccaneers who got in trouble with the law (see here, here and here)comes one more, this a former player and one of the bigger NFL draft busts in history!

St Pete Times:

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers first-round draft pick Keith McCants was arrested on a possession of cocaine charge early Wednesday as he was driving out of a strip club parking lot, police said.

McCants was pulling out of Tina's House of Angels, 3080 34th Street N., about 12:15 a.m. because he failed to stop while leaving a private drive, said police spokesman Mike Puetz. They also noticed that McCants and a passenger, Christina Shamika Campbell, 28, were not wearing their seat belts.

After they stopped the car, police saw a crack pipe in the center console of McCant's 1999 Chevy Tahoe. After searching the vehicle, police found one piece of crack in Campbell's purse.

Police arrested McCants and Campbell and seized the vehicle.

The 42-year-old former linebacker and defensive end's address was listed as 6291 Bahia Del Mar Circle in St. Petersburg, Florida, though he has had a string of arrests in Alabama over the past few years.

McCants, who was the fourth overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft but was cut after three seasons, has a history of legal troubles. Most recently, McCants was arrested on a charge of attempting to purchase drugs at a hotel in Mobile, Ala., in April. Mobile police also arrested him on use and possession of drug paraphernalia charges in June, according to the Mobile Press-Register.

In 2008, police in Alabama used a Taser on McCants after he threw a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and a crack pipe at an officer, nearly hitting the officer in the head, according to reports. He was not charged with battery of a law enforcement officer.

McCants, who was one of the nation's top college defensive players when he attended the University of Alabama, was considered one of the biggest draft busts in Bucs history. He started in 25 of the 47 games he played with Tampa Bay, then went on to play a couple more years with the Houston Oilers and Arizona Cardinals.

St. Petersburg Police arrested McCants and booked him into the Pinellas County Jail at 2:12 a.m., according to records. He remained in jail Wednesday morning.

Have you or a loved one been arrested for a drug charge or a DUI? Then contact the Clearwater criminal defense attorneys of Blake & Dorsten, P.A. for a free consultation!

For more information, or to speak directly with experienced Clearwater criminal defense lawyers please contact BLAKE & DORSTEN, P.A. at 727.286.6141 or email the lawyers your questions at: info@blakedorstenlaw.com. We are located at 4707 140th Ave N, Suite 104 in Clearwater, across from the criminal courthouse in the airport business center, minutes from Tampa and St. Petersburg.