Page 38 - TPA Journal January February 2022

Although the totality of the circumstances suggest doctor while Lee, a nurse by training, was the
that Bass was not free to leave, his restraint had not clinic’s office manager. An Eastern District of
yet reached the level necessary to necessitate Texas grand jury indicted the couple for conspiring
Miranda warnings. We affirm the district court’s to distribute controlled substances. The indictment
denial of Bass’s motion to suppress his voluntarily alleged that from 2010 through early 2012, Taylor
given statements made prior to being in custody. and Lee conspired to illegally prescribe five
controlled substances: oxycodone, amphetamine
(Discussion of whether the sentencing guidelines salts, hydrocodone, alprazolam, and promethazine
were properly applied is omitted. Ed.) with codeine.

For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district A jury convicted both of them after a seven-day
court’s denial of the motion to suppress and find trial. It also made findings about the quantity of
the district court did not err in the application of the drugs the couple distributed, but those quantities
ACCA and firearm enhancements at sentencing. did not trigger higher statutory minimum or
maximum sentences.
U.S. v Bass, 5th Cir. No. 20-10588, May 11th,
2021. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). The district court
**************************************** then sentenced Taylor to the 20-year statutory
**************************** maximum (his Guidelines range would have been
higher but for the statutory cap) and Lee to just over
15 years.
EVIDENCE & ELEMENTS – Pill Mill
Taylor and Lee challenge the sufficiency of the
The prosecution of a medical clinic outside Dallas evidence, contend that they were convicted in an
offers a window into the prescription drug improper venue, and argue that three errors infected
epidemic that is plaguing America. At trial, the the trial: premature jury deliberation, unreliable
parties told a tale of two clinics. The government expert testimony, and a deliberate ignorance
described a pill mill that prescribed patients more instruction. They also appeal their sentences. We
than a million doses of abusable drugs in just two start with the defendants’ claim that there was not
years. The defense described a pain management enough evidence to convict them. They moved for
clinic that helped people who appeared to suffer acquittal at the end of trial, so we review their
from chronic pain. A jury agreed with the sufficiency appeal de novo. That means we do not
government’s account and found the clinic’s doctor give deference to the district court’s ruling denying
and office manager guilty of conspiring to the motion. But, like the district judge, we give
distribute controlled substances. We consider a great deference to the jury’s factfinding role,
number of challenges to the convictions and viewing the evidence and drawing all inferences in
sentences. favor of its verdict.
Because Taylor was a doctor with prescribing
Theodore “Tad” Taylor and Chia Jean Lee, a authority, he and Lee could distribute controlled
married couple who met while earning their substances as long as they did so for a legitimate
degrees at Yale, ran Taylor Texas Medicine in medical purpose and within the scope of
Richardson, Texas. Taylor was the clinic’s only professional practice. Thus, when a conspirator has

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