Jury comes through – Dr. Paul Heberle acquitted

A victory for pain sufferers in the Government’s war to inflict pain upon them —
Via Radley Balko:

Erie, PA- Nearly one year following his splashy perp walk courtesy of Attorney General Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, physician Paul Heberle, D. O. was cleared of all charges by an Erie jury earlier today.
Citing a lack of evidence, the jury acquitted on the 14 controlled substances charges and the 12 Medicaid fraud counts that purportedly stemmed from Heberle’s “criminal” prescribing. One controlled substance charge and one Medicaid fraud charge were dropped at the beginning of the trial which began a week and a half ago.
“Initially, the case was a combined effort by the DEA and the state of Pennsylvania but the Feds pulled out when we got involved. More and more we are seeing that they only follow through on prosecutions that they are certain they are going to win,” said Siobhan Reynolds, President of Pain Relief Network, the organization credited with coordinating tactical support for the defense effort.
“Without the Pain Relief Network we would have been lost,” said Christine Heberle, Dr. Heberle’s wife.
“It isn’t going to end here,” Mrs. Heberle vowed “the world must come to understand what the state of Pennsylvania did to these patients, how they covered up evidence of actual drug diversion in order to ‘get’ Paul… and all the other terrible things going on here. They shouldn’t be allowed to just do this to these doctors and patients.”
Reynolds added that PRN will be calling for a formal investigation into the agents’ conduct and that of the attorneys of the Attorney General’s office. ” Once people come to understand the degree to which this whole thing was an elaborate set up, designed it seems, to score political points, we hope that these prosecutions will be seen for what they are; government attacks on our most vulnerable population, those in severe chronic pain.” […]

I really got to know more about this despicable case through the extensive segment on Dr. Paul Heberle in John Holowach’s film High: The True Tale of American Marijuana.
It’s nice to see Dr. Heberle exonerated, although it’s already too late for some of his patients, and the destruction caused by this malicious witch hunt has been extensive.