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http://online.wsj.com/article/APfc5ba087af6c4269811716862bc969f0.html
ALBANY, N.Y. — An upstate New York prosecutor who charged a Florida pharmacy in 2007 with selling anabolic steroids to pro athletes and entertainers is being sued for $75 million by the pharmacists, who claim defamation and false arrest with their indictments now dismissed in criminal court.
In June, Presnell ordered the return of Signature's records and inventory, saying prosecutors overstepped their bounds in taking everything.
Attorney Amy Tingley said the drugs had expired and while Signature did remain open after the raid, it never recovered. It formally closed its pharmacy operations in late 2008. Her clients were arrested publicly, spent a week in jail and were flown to Albany before posting bail. Three have gone to work for another pharmacy, and two are not working, she said.
A business evaluation filed last year in federal court estimated damages for the pharmacy's lost value at $27.2 million and lost profits at $48.5 million.
"These individuals, like Judge Presnell said, they have not been convicted of anything," Tingley said. "They stand here today, as they had on day one, proclaiming their innocence."
Within two years of the raid, 17 other people pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy counts in Albany, including operators and employees of several distributors that did business with Signature, as well as four doctors or former doctors who wrote prescriptions.
Soares maintained it was illegal in New York for a doctor to prescribe drugs without examining the patient in person and illegal for a pharmacy to dispense drugs without a valid prescription.
ALBANY, N.Y. — An upstate New York prosecutor who charged a Florida pharmacy in 2007 with selling anabolic steroids to pro athletes and entertainers is being sued for $75 million by the pharmacists, who claim defamation and false arrest with their indictments now dismissed in criminal court.
In June, Presnell ordered the return of Signature's records and inventory, saying prosecutors overstepped their bounds in taking everything.
Attorney Amy Tingley said the drugs had expired and while Signature did remain open after the raid, it never recovered. It formally closed its pharmacy operations in late 2008. Her clients were arrested publicly, spent a week in jail and were flown to Albany before posting bail. Three have gone to work for another pharmacy, and two are not working, she said.
A business evaluation filed last year in federal court estimated damages for the pharmacy's lost value at $27.2 million and lost profits at $48.5 million.
"These individuals, like Judge Presnell said, they have not been convicted of anything," Tingley said. "They stand here today, as they had on day one, proclaiming their innocence."
Within two years of the raid, 17 other people pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy counts in Albany, including operators and employees of several distributors that did business with Signature, as well as four doctors or former doctors who wrote prescriptions.
Soares maintained it was illegal in New York for a doctor to prescribe drugs without examining the patient in person and illegal for a pharmacy to dispense drugs without a valid prescription.
