The Associated Press

HAYSVILLE, Kan. — Malpractice attorneys worked closely with federal prosecutors to help indict a Kansas doctor accused of illegally prescribing painkillers linked to the overdose deaths of 56 patients, attorneys acknowledged in interviews and in documents obtained by The Associated Press.

While the malpractice attorneys contend their help wasn’t improper, supporters of Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, nurse Linda Schneider, contend the close involvement by malpractice attorneys representing plaintiffs in civil lawsuits against the doctor taints the federal prosecution.

The Schneiders were indicted in December on 34 federal counts, including four counts of unlawful distribution and dispensing of control substances resulting in death. The indictment accuses the Haysville couple of directly causing four deaths and contributing to at least 11 others. The couple has pleaded not guilty.

The AP analyzed court documents filed in numerous civil lawsuits against Stephen Schneider over the past several years and found that the bulk of the death cases in the indictment were first filed as malpractice lawsuits by two Wichita attorneys, Andrew Hutton and Larry Wall.

Their findings, as set out in exhibits filed in those civil cases, are used throughout the criminal indictment — sometimes verbatim.

Both Wall and Hutton acknowledged cooperating with the U.S. attorney’s office but said the prosecutors did not share the government’s evidence with the malpractice attorneys.

“They relied on a lot of information that we created — the depositions, transcripts and affidavits — but they did a lot of work themselves,” Hutton said, noting federal raids at Schneider Medical Clinic on Sept. 13, 2005, and March 28, 2006, also yielded boxes of evidence.

And Hutton insisted most clients who lost family members to prescription drug overdoses were more concerned about putting Stephen Schneider out of business than with collecting money from their lawsuits.

But Pain Relief Network, a New Mexico-based patients rights group that has come to the defense of the Schneiders, contends the malpractice attorneys and their clients stand to gain from a criminal indictment that justifies their lawsuits.

“A lot of people are benefiting from it financially. Ultimately, that makes all of these victims not credible,” said Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network. “It appears to be their payment — their carrot in addition to whatever sticks the prosecutor can bring to bear.”

The U.S. attorney’s office declined to discuss its investigation of the Schneiders, who also face charges of conspiracy, health care fraud, illegal money transactions and money laundering.

But a June 26, 2007, letter written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Threadway and recently obtained by the AP confirmed that Hutton and Wall were cooperating with prosecutors. However, in the letter, Threadway denied accusations in a defense motion that she was using the civil discovery process to investigate the doctor.

In the letter to Chicago attorney David Schippers, who represents the Schneiders, Threadway said Wall and Hutton agreed to provide her with depositions, exhibits and motions from the lawsuits — cooperation she said was appreciated because it eliminated the need to issue subpoenas.

Wall also told Schippers in a May 29, 2007, letter that his office was cooperating with the federal investigation: “We are sharing all of the depositions and exhibits, and we intend to continue this complete cooperation throughout litigation.”