The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates 25 percent to 87 percent of inmates have a head or brain injury.
By FRANK GREEN
Richmond Times-Dispatch
RICHMOND, Va. — A federal judge says he will not imprison a man facing years behind bars in a bank-fraud case unless the U.S. Bureau of Prisons promises he will receive needed medications.
Charles L. Ellinger O’Brien has pleaded guilty to stealing $450,000 from his former employer, SunTrust Bank. According to testimony and court records, he has bipolar disorder and a history of alcohol abuse and was disabled by a brain injury suffered in a fall after leaving a party in May 2004.
His psychiatrists say O’Brien, 40, needs 10 or more daily medications, a regimen that took years to perfect and costs $1,200 a month. The government’s own expert testified O’Brien’s mental health could be jeopardized if care isn’t taken in changing his drugs.
O’Brien’s doctors say federal prison authorities want to change six to eight of the drugs once O’Brien is in custody, frustrating U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne.
“I believe that a prison sentence is appropriate,” Payne said Thursday. But while it was not necessary to continue all of O’Brien’s therapy, he said, “it is imperative that the medication be continued in its current form.”
“If they won’t do it, then I’m going to tell you the sentence will not include prison time,” he said, though he left open the possibility of O’Brien serving weekends in jail.
Payne said he has sentenced defendants with much more difficult health problems and that the Bureau of Prisons has always been able to meet their needs.
“I’ve never had a situation like this,” he said.
A 2006 federal study found that 45 percent of federal prisoners, 56 percent of state prisoners, and 64 percent of local jail inmates have a mental-health problem. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates 25 percent to 87 percent of inmates have a head or brain injury.
Many inmates complain that after entering prison, or after a transfer from one prison to another, they are stripped of their medications, or the medications are changed.
Corrections officials and prison medical-care providers counter that often many medications are unnecessary, unavailable or can be replaced by generic alternatives. Some drugs also have the potential for abuse by inmates.
A former loan officer, O’Brien fraudulently obtained a $450,000 loan from the bank in 2001, supposedly to raise money for the Hampden-Sydney Foundation that he had established. Instead of benefiting his alma mater, O’Brien paid for membership at Kinloch Golf Club and bought 10 cars, including a Mercedes-Benz and a Porsche.
Though held to be permanently disabled, the government said that after his brain injury, O’Brien continued his “lavish lifestyle,” including golf games, and continued his semiannual interest payments on the loan using the original principal.
But according to court papers, since August 2005 he has not been living the high life. He has been convicted of bank fraud, divorced, given limited visitation with his young son, lost his friends and lives on disability and Social Security.
His neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Gregory J. O’Shanick, said O’Brien is paying him $400 a month, but it does not cover the cost of his therapy. O’Shanick testified that when he last checked, O’Brien’s outstanding bill was about $90,000.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, O’Brien also must pay SunTrust back the $450,000. O’Brien faces a maximum term of 30 years, but federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of imprisonment in the 41to 51-month range.
Papers filed by the government seek a stiff sentence: “In this case, the college-educated defendant was convicted of a well-planned, intricate and egregious five-year bank fraud scheme . . . to allow him to live a lifestyle of the rich and famous.”
O’Brien’s lawyer, Craig S. Cooley, wants 6 to 12 months of home incarceration, which he calls a more efficient and less costly alternative.
Dr. Thomas Gaultieri, a psychiatrist called as a government witness, testified Thursday that several years in a humane prison would not harm O’Brien.
However, he said, if O’Brien’s medications for his bipolar condition are changed, it should be done one drug at a time. Were it up to him, Gaultieri said he would tell prison officials not to change the medications.
Payne asked a prison psychiatrist, Dr. Jean Zula, if the bureau was prepared to keep O’Brien on his medications.
“That would be a problem . . . no,” she said. She said at least one of O’Brien’s drugs, Ritalin, has the potential for abuse. She said he would receive adequate, appropriate care.
Payne agreed to delay sentencing until May 8. The delay will enable the U.S. attorney’s office to look into whether the Bureau of Prisons is able to comply with a court order requiring O’Brien to be kept on his medications.
Copyright 2008 Richmond Times-Dispatch