The two nurse practitioners accused of illegally prescribing diet pills from the Kouts Family Health Clinic will have separate trials.
Senior Judge Kathleen Lang, who is filling in for Porter Superior Judge Mary Harper, made the decision Friday, keeping clinic owner Kathy Lynn Lynch, 57, of the 900 block of Baums Bridge Road in Kouts, in the original five-day trial starting March 28.
She also set June 6 as the start of the trial date for Karen Suzanne Dunning, 70, of the 600 West block of County Road 100 South in Hebron.
Although defense attorney Lakesha Murdaugh — co-counsel with Scott King for both women — argued that the charges for the women are essentially a series of five charges repeated with differences in dates and patients, Lang didn’t agree that a combined trial was ideal.
“Trying them at the same time could be confusing to the jury,” Lang said.
Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel said the state never planned a joint trial.
“They were stylized as two separate cases,” Gensel said.
The women are accused of phoning in prescriptions or having staff phone in prescriptions for phentermine and phendimetrazine, allegedly filling 2,048 illegal prescriptions in 2012 and 2013 out of the clinic at 705 Main St., according to the probable cause affidavit.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Attorney General’s office worked on the investigation with Porter County starting in January 2014 and charges were filed in February, according to Gensel and court documents.
Dunning is charged with 16 felonies, six of them for dealing a controlled substance, five for practicing medicine without a license, three related to distribution of a controlled substance and two for use of a fictitious registration number.
The highest charges are two Class B felonies, which carry sentences of up to 20 years.
Lynch faces 27 felonies when she goes to trial March 28, all similar charges to those against Dunning.
James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
