Kansas doctor asks appeals court to throw out conspiracy conviction

January 12, 2012

Kansas: A Kansas doctor who was convicted along with his wife in 2010 of conspiracy, money laundering, illegally prescribing medication, and healthcare fraud has appealed the conviction with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Stephen and Linda Schneider were sentenced to 63 years in prison between them and were ordered to pay $1.27 million in fines and $114 million in restitution. Their new defense team filed appeals documents with the Tenth Circuit on January 7th, 2012 arguing that the couple's previous lawyers had a conflict of interest that allowed an outside party undue influence in the defense strategy. The arguments claim that Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, was allowed to turn the couple's defense into a policy fight in opposition to the War on Drugs, instead of a genuine criminal defense. The documents state confidential information was shared with Reynolds and that one of the Scheider's lawyers had a sexual relationship with Reynolds.