A doctor charged in the bombing outside the home of the state medical board chairman planned the attack after the board received a complaint that he’d been illegally distributing drugs, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday.
Dr. Randeep Mann’s attorneys have asked a judge to not allow prosecutors to introduce evidence about Mann’s alleged drug possession and distribution because Mann hasn’t been charged with any drug offenses.
But in a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors said Mann’s purported prescription drug distribution led to the February 2009 bombing at Dr. Trent Pierce’s West Memphis home. Pierce was injured but survived after a homemade bomb left in his driveway went off as he approached.
The board earlier restricted Mann’s prescription-writing privileges because of complaints that several patients had overdosed.
“It is the United States’ position that the bombing was the direct result of self-perceived years of frustration with the board,” U.S. Attorney Jane Duke wrote in the filing, “and that the defendant, once he learned of the new complaint against him, lashed out against its chairman because of that frustration and because he believed he was about to lose his medical license once and for all.”
Prosecutors claim Mann continued to distribute prescription drugs even after the board stripped him of that right. They plan to introduce evidence that Mann unlawfully distributed drugs including morphine, Xanax, hydrocodone and Ambien from 2006 to March 2009, according to court records.
Prosecutors also said Mann possessed painkillers, muscle relaxers, anti-anxiety drugs and other prescription pills when he was arrested in March 2009.
Mann, a licensed firearms dealer, also faces charges of possessing unregistered grenades and two unregistered guns.
“There is simply no connection between a doctor who allegedly prescribed and possessed medication when his permit to do so was suspended and his alleged illegal possession of firearms,” Mann’s attorney, Blake Hendrix, wrote in a motion to stop prosecutors from introducing the evidence about the drugs.
U.S. District Judge Brian Miller has not yet ruled on the motion. The case goes to trial next week.