Rush Limbaugh arrested
Apr 29, 2006 0:00:17 GMT -5
Post by tico on Apr 29, 2006 0:00:17 GMT -5
Can't blame the liberals on this one
Rush Limbaugh arrested on prescription fraud charges
Chrystian Tejedor
sun-sentinel.com
Posted April 28 2006, 6:15 PM EDT
WEST PALM BEACH -- Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Friday turned himself into the Palm Beach County Jail to face a charge of fraud for concealing information to obtain a prescription.
He was quickly released after posting $3,000 bond, jail officials said. Prosecutors alleged that Limbaugh violated the state's "doctor shopping" law by getting four doctors to write overlapping prescriptions and failing to tell them about each other. Limbaugh, who pleaded not guilty, struck an agreement with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office that calls for the charge to be dropped in 18 months provided that Limbaugh continues to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen for the past 2 1/2 years and must refrain from breaking the law during that period, Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, said in a statement.
Limbaugh also will pay $30 per month for the cost of supervision and will pay the state $30,000 to help offset the cost of the investigation into the doctor-shopping allegations.
Prosecutors previously were investigating prescriptions that Limbaugh received from Florida and California doctors between March 2003 and September 2003, when he allegedly picked up 1,733 hydrocodone, 90 OxyContin, 50 Xanax and 40 time-release morphine pills.
In 2003, Wilma Cline, Limbaugh's former housekeeper and her handyman husband, David, gave the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office copies of e-mails and taped phone messages documenting what they allege became Limbaugh's 30-pill-a-day drug habit.
Wilma Cline told The National Enquirer that she began funneling to Limbaugh some of her husband's hydrocodone supply, prescribed after David Cline fell when a pull-down ladder snapped apart, injuring his neck, knees and hand in March 1988. After those prescriptions dried up, Wilma Cline found another drug source for Limbaugh, she told the tabloid, getting him at one point 11,900 pills in a four month period in 2001.
After the Clines' story broke, Limbaugh acknowledged on his nationally syndicated radio program that he was addicted to painkillers, and took a 30-day leave of absence to try to kick the habit.
"I want you to know I'm no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I'm doing something heroic here, something great here. I'm not a victim. I'm not going to portray myself as a victim. I take full responsibility for this problem," Limbaugh told his listeners in October 2003.
Limbaugh also told listeners that day that he had twice checked into rehabilitation clinics over the past half-dozen years in an effort to break his addiction and would do so again immediately.
Rush Limbaugh arrested on prescription fraud charges
Chrystian Tejedor
sun-sentinel.com
Posted April 28 2006, 6:15 PM EDT
WEST PALM BEACH -- Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Friday turned himself into the Palm Beach County Jail to face a charge of fraud for concealing information to obtain a prescription.
He was quickly released after posting $3,000 bond, jail officials said. Prosecutors alleged that Limbaugh violated the state's "doctor shopping" law by getting four doctors to write overlapping prescriptions and failing to tell them about each other. Limbaugh, who pleaded not guilty, struck an agreement with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office that calls for the charge to be dropped in 18 months provided that Limbaugh continues to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen for the past 2 1/2 years and must refrain from breaking the law during that period, Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, said in a statement.
Limbaugh also will pay $30 per month for the cost of supervision and will pay the state $30,000 to help offset the cost of the investigation into the doctor-shopping allegations.
Prosecutors previously were investigating prescriptions that Limbaugh received from Florida and California doctors between March 2003 and September 2003, when he allegedly picked up 1,733 hydrocodone, 90 OxyContin, 50 Xanax and 40 time-release morphine pills.
In 2003, Wilma Cline, Limbaugh's former housekeeper and her handyman husband, David, gave the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office copies of e-mails and taped phone messages documenting what they allege became Limbaugh's 30-pill-a-day drug habit.
Wilma Cline told The National Enquirer that she began funneling to Limbaugh some of her husband's hydrocodone supply, prescribed after David Cline fell when a pull-down ladder snapped apart, injuring his neck, knees and hand in March 1988. After those prescriptions dried up, Wilma Cline found another drug source for Limbaugh, she told the tabloid, getting him at one point 11,900 pills in a four month period in 2001.
After the Clines' story broke, Limbaugh acknowledged on his nationally syndicated radio program that he was addicted to painkillers, and took a 30-day leave of absence to try to kick the habit.
"I want you to know I'm no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I'm doing something heroic here, something great here. I'm not a victim. I'm not going to portray myself as a victim. I take full responsibility for this problem," Limbaugh told his listeners in October 2003.
Limbaugh also told listeners that day that he had twice checked into rehabilitation clinics over the past half-dozen years in an effort to break his addiction and would do so again immediately.
