Coroner Who Moonlighted Takes Plea, Losing Medical License But Avoiding Time
A suburban Chicago coroner pleaded guilty today to obstruction of justice and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and resigned from his job, one of the highest elected positions in Lake County.
Richard Keller must surrender his physician’s license for five years as part of the plea deal, but will avoid serving prison time if he successfully completes two years of probation, reports the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald.
Keller, who created controversy by ruling, as coroner, on the cause of death of a patient he himself treated at a methadone clinic in Waukegan, while moonlighting as medical director there, got into trouble for two reasons, according to the articles:
First, he was charged with obstruction for failing to turn over all of the clinic’s records, in response to a subpoena.
Second, he was accused of prescribing drugs to patients at the clinic without sufficient evaluation to meet the required standard of care.
“I suppose this is kind of an ultimate betrayal of trust. How great a fall [is] … just very disturbing,” said Circuit Judge John Phillips.
Keller, until now, has denied doing anything wrong. He has also called the investigation politically motivated.
