10
May 27, 2016
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
– that’s all you need to know
By Katie Mettler
he drugs killed Cheryl
Pennington, 47, and a
49-year-old father
named David Robinson.
They got Audrey
Austin, too, less than a week
after the 29-year-old mother of
two left rehab.
The substances - powerful,
addictive pain medications -
were allegedly prescribed by
Narendra K. Nagareddy, a 57-
year-old psychiatrist on Atlanta's
South Side reportedly known for
his willingness to prescribe pills
to nearly anyone who wanted
them. The doctor was arrested
May 18 for their deaths.
A Clay County grand jury
indicted Nagareddy, known in
the media widely as "Dr. Death,"
on three counts of murder, and
59 additional counts of unau-
thorized distribution of pain
prescriptions, reported the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Nagareddy has denied the
allegations from the outset,
according to news reports.
"Unequivocally, we will be ready
to defend this matter," Steve
Frey, Nagareddy's attorney, told
the Journal-Constitution after
the indictment. "He is innocent
of all of these charges."
It's the latest development in
a years-long investigation into
Nagareddy's medical practice.
A probation officer was
among the first to flag
Nagareddy after she noticed that
three people in her caseload
who had died were patients of
the doctor, according to an AJC
investigation. She reported the
pattern to the Drug
Enforcement Administration,
which worked with local law
enforcement to build a case that
led to Nagareddy's initial arrest
in January.
He was charged with violating
the Georgia Controlled
Substances Act by allegedly pre-
scribing medications that had
no legitimate purpose.
Nagareddy was later released on
a $100,000 bond, the Journal-
Constitution reported.
One month after his January
arrest, the Georgia Composite
Medical Board voted to suspend
Nagareddy's license.
Ruth Carr, the mother of
Audrey Austin, told several news
outlets she was relieved by the
new charges, but continued to
grieve the loss of her daughter.
"It doesn't get better with
time. And I think that it's been
long overdue with the doctor,"
Carr toldWSB-TV 2. "I knew he
was doing (it) with people other
(than) my daughter and I knew
she wasn't the only one."
Nagareddy is accused in court
documents of giving refillable
painkiller prescriptions, taboo in
the medical community because
patients can fill the prescriptions
prematurely. Former patients
told investigators that
Nagareddy was known around
town for prescribing pills for
pain, and that he rarely if ever
gave physical examinations
before writing prescriptions,
documents show.
"You just tell him what you
want and you get it," one former
patient said.
Court documents allege that
36 of Nagareddy's patients died
while he was allegedly prescrib-
ing them controlled substances -
hydrocodone, oxycodone,
methadone, fentanyl and
amphetamine salts - and autop-
sies confirmed that 12 of those
patients died of prescription
drug overdoses. His patients
were often battling addiction,
anxiety and depression.
Investigators interviewed the
program director of a
methadone clinic in Atlanta,
who was not identified by name
in court documents but was
quoted saying: "Dr. Nagareddy is
very generous with scripts." The
medical director of the clinic,
also unnamed, told investigators
that patients "get anything they
want" from the doctor and that
he "has a bad reputation."
OnVitals and RateMDs, some
former patients praised the doc-
tor's bedside manner, credited
him with saving their lives and
claimed he was the only physi-
cian who would accept them
without insurance.
Others, however, bashed
Nagareddy, calling him a "drug
pusher" and posting warnings
about the doctor as early as
2010.
People in those comment
threads and in documents said
the waiting room at Nagareddy's
office was often packed with
dazed patients.
"I'd see a lot of zombied-out
people," Rebecca Gray, the sister
of another patient who over-
dosed, told the Journal-
Constitution. "You could tell a
lot of them were junkies."
At a news conference May 18,
District Attorney Tracy Graham
Lawson told reporters that at
least 11 of the new counts
Nagareddy faces include his
negligence to sign or date his
prescriptions, the McDonough,
Ga.-based Henry Herald report-
ed.
According to the newspaper,
the doctor could face additional
charges for at least 30 other
alleged overdose deaths.
"What it means is there will
no longer be prescriptions
issued by Dr. Nagareddy that
result in the deaths of any inno-
cent people," Lawson told
reporters.
– TheWashington Post
T
Atlanta Physician Dubbed ‘Dr. Death’ Indicted For Alleged Murder
14 Defendants Of Indian Origin
Charged With Immigration Fraud
IANS
F
ourteen people of
Indian descent are
among 19 charged with
involvement in visa fraud
through fake "green card"
marriages or by falsely mak-
ing claims of being crime vic-
tims, according to officials.
Federal prosecutor Gregory
K. Davis said that the accused
from eight states, "who
sought to undermine the
integrity of our nation's immi-
gration system," have been
charged in the federal court in
Jackson, Mississippi. The
charges resulted from joint
investigations by the
Homeland Security
Investigations, the Mississippi
Attorney General's Office, and
the FBI. "The defendants
allegedly circumvented the
laws and submitted fraudu-
lent documents that are criti-
cal to obtaining immigration
status," said Davis, the federal
prosecutor for the Southern
District of Mississippi.
The prosecutor's office said
that a lawyer, Simpson Lloyd
Goodman, submitted fake
documents for some of the
Indians charged with him to
get "U-Visas," which are
issued to crime victims who
help investigations or prose-
cutions. Of the 11 charged in
the fake crime victim visa
case, nine had Indian names
and could include those with
U.S. citizenship.
Eleven people were
charged with offenses relating
to sham "green card" mar-
riages with U.S. citizens. Of
them, seven had Indian
names.
"These marriages were not
entered into because of mutu-
al love and affection between
the parties, but solely to cre-
ate a legal status that would
provide a basis for immigra-
tion status for the alien part-
ner and usually for some eco-
nomic benefit to the United
States citizen," the prosecu-
tor's office said.
Lawyer Goodman, Sachin
Girishkumar Patel, 33, of
Mississippi, and Tarunkumar
Purushottambhai Patel, 49, of
Missouri, face charges involv-
ing phony marriages as well
as fake crime victim visa
applications. Five Indians and
three others face charges
relating only to shammar-
riages.
Others accused in the U-
Visa case are Sanjay Rathilal
Patel, 35, Lakewood, New
Jersey;Maheshkumar
Mangaldas Patel, 50, Houston,
Texas;Ashaben Mukeshbhai
Patel, 38, Covington,
Louisiana; Rajan
Nareshkumar Patel, 31, cur-
rently incarcerated in Adams
County, Mississippi; Gopaldas
Khodabhai Patel, 55, Byram,
Mississippi; Sachin Khodidas
Patel, 27, Byram, Mississippi;
and Baldevbhai Ramabhai
Patel, 34, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. And in the "fake
marriage" category, others
accused include, Chirag
Nilesh Patel, 27, of St. Louis,
Missouri;Sejal Sanjay Kakadia,
52, of Covington, Louisiana;
Jayantibhai Kalidas
Chaudhari, 47, of Covington,
Louisiana; Virendra
Rambachan Rajput, 45,
Lawrence, Massachusetts;
Javona Shanice Rajput, 27,
Jackson, Mississippi;Dana
Cheetara Adams, 29, Plano,
Texas;Brandy Nicole Edwards,
34, Crystal Springs,
Mississippi; and Terilynn
Rankin, 48, Mendenhall,
Mississippi.
– NEWYORK
A
third of high-achieving
female physicians or sci-
entists in the U.S. have
been victims of sexual harass-
ment, say researchers led by an
Indian-origin scientist.
The findings showed that
women were more likely than
men to report both perceptions
and experiences with gender
bias. Gender bias was perceived
by 70 percent of women as
against 22 percent of men and
66 percent of women said they
experienced gender bias com-
pared to 10 percent of men.
In addition, 30 percent of
women compared to four per-
cent of men said they had expe-
rienced sexual harassment in
their professional careers.
"The perception among
many of us is that this type of
behavior is a thing of the past.
So it's heartening to see quite
how many relatively young
women in this sample reported
experiences with harassment
and discrimination," said study
author Reshma Jagsi, associate
professor at the University of
Michigan Medical School.
"This is a sobering reminder
that our society has a long way
to go before we achieve gender
equity,” Jagsi added.
The study, published in the
Journal of the American Medical
Association, showed that the sit-
uation reflects a larger societal
problem.
Women who experience these
types of harassment may be less
likely to report these incidents if
they feel they are unique and
aberrational.
"We need to recognize the
degree to which sexual harass-
ment and gender inequality
continue to be an issue in aca-
demic medicine," Jagsi noted.
Researchers surveyed 1,066
men and women who had
received a career development
award between 2006-2009 from
the National Institutes of Health.
The physicians were asked a
number of questions about their
career experiences, including
questions about gender bias,
gender advantage and sexual
harassment.
– IANS
30 Percent Of Female Doctors In U.S. Sexually Harassed: Study
"It doesn't get
better with time.
And I think that
it's been long
overdue with the
doctor”
