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HomeNewsArchivesAppeal Efforts for Local Physician Dealt Minor Setback Tuesday

Appeal Efforts for Local Physician Dealt Minor Setback Tuesday

May 8, 2007 — Efforts to win a new trial for convicted St. Thomas physician Paul Maynard, found guilty in February on four counts of prescribing pain medication to patients without "a legitimate medical purpose," were dealt a setback Tuesday when District Judge James T. Giles quashed a subpoena request by Maynard's defense attorney.
The target of the subpoena was none other than Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Chisholm, who originally prosecuted the case. Maynard defense attorney John Flannery, in seeking grounds for a new trial, asserted that Chisholm's personal connections to the Maynard family prejudiced her prosecution of the case.
During Tuesday's hearing in the Ron de Lugo Federal Building, Giles dismissed Flannery's efforts to compel Chisholm to take the stand, referring to the “frivolous” nature of the request.
Time and time again, the judge overruled Flannery’s objections. Giles sustained the prosecution’s objections and intensely questioned the only witness of the day, Maynard’s sister, Milicent Maynard, who maintained that Chisholm had once been a patient of Dr. Maynard and at one point lived in the apartment under Dr. Maynard and his first wife.
The defense contended that Chisholm and Maynard’s first wife had inappropriate contact during and after the trial but could not produce any evidence to support those allegations.
Maynard's sister admitted that she had never seen Chisholm in Dr. Maynard’s office.
Flannery asked the judge, “Why not call the one person who can dispel or confirm, attorney Chisholm?”
However, Giles said there was no evidence to support Flannery’s contentions and thus denied the subpoena.
It was a spirited, and at times, hotly debated session, as Flannery and Giles argued points of law and procedure. At one point they even argued about the meaning of the word “angry.”
At one point Giles demanded that if Flannery had any evidence to produce he should call Dr. Maynard to testify. “Do it now!” Giles shouted. To which Flannery responded, “I have not had a chance to talk to my client,” and asked for a moment to confer with Maynard, who did not take the stand Tuesday.
A former New York federal prosecutor who now has a private practice in Virginia, Flannery was secured to represent Maynard after his conviction.
Maynard had been returned from Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, for Tuesday’s hearing and another later this week.
On Friday, Giles will consider Maynard's request for a new trial and the doctor's emergency bail motion.
Whitman Browne, a Maynard supporter, said that the hearing appeared to be particularly one sided. He left the courtroom, saying, “There was no justice here today. The judge ignored so many obvious facts and conflicts. I really can’t believe it.”
Maynard’s supporters will be holding a vigil for the doctor on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Emancipation Garden.
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