Jurors in Dr. Hocog’s trial start deliberation

Jurors started deliberating yesterday in the case against Dr. Larry Hocog, who is on trial for allegedly illegally dispensing powerful pain killers.

The 12 jurors began deliberations after U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson gave them instructions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric O’Malley and defense attorney Michael Dotts completed the closing arguments in the morning.

The jurors did not reach a verdict yesterday afternoon. They are expected to resume their deliberations today, Friday.

In his arguments, O’Malley said the evidence and testimonies of witnesses proved beyond reasonable doubt that Hocog is guilty of one count of distribution of oxycodone hydrochloride and one count of distribution of meperidine.

O’Malley said Hocog could have challenged his medical license’s restrictions by filing a lawsuit then re-applying with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“He just decided that the law does not apply to him,” O’Malley said.

The prosecutor said Hocog was the one who wrote and signed the medical prescriptions for the patients.

He said the two drugs the doctor prescribed —oxycodone hydrochloride and meperidine—are among the most powerful and dangerous pain killers.

DEA Los Angeles diversionary program manager Dr. Michael James Lewis had stated in his testimony that people will get addicted to these types of drugs, known as scheduled 2 and 3 narcotics.

O’Malley said the evidence showed that Hocog not only violated the law once, twice, but 90 times in the course of three months in 2007.

The prosecutor said Hocog was not authorized to dispense scheduled 2 and 3 narcotics yet evidence shows that he dispensed scheduled 2 narcotics.

O’Malley concluded that Hocog “stepped over the line.”

In Hocog’s defense, Dotts argued that the prosecution failed to present evidence that his client committed the crimes beyond reasonable doubt.

Dotts said that in the 90-day period that was questioned by the government, Hocog probably saw 3,600 patients.

“Dr. Hocog is a very busy doctor,” Dotts said.

He quoted Department of Public Health Secretary Kevin Villagomez’s testimony that if the restrictions expired, then “Hocog could do anything any other doctor could do.”

Dotts said Hocog’s license issue is still pending in the local medical board, but the U.S. government jumped the gun.

He said the government cannot prove that the defendant acted knowingly in signing the prescriptions.

The defense lawyers quoted some nurses and a CUC official who testified that the nurses administered the prescriptions and not the doctors.

“Dr. Hocog did not intend to violate the law,” Dotts stressed.

He quoted Dr. Lewis as saying that Hocog was upfront with the restrictions on his license and this shows that the defendant is not hiding anything.

“He’s very honest to DEA,” he said.

Citing the case of a patient who was doing fine after being treated by Hocog, Dotts said the evidence shows that “Hocog is a fine doctor.”

O’Malley stated in the indictment that beginning Sept. 4, 2007 and continuing until Nov. 30, 2007, the defendant dispensed oxycodone hydrochloride, a controlled substance.

The prosecutor said that on Sept. 4, 2007 until Nov. 26, 2007, Hocog distributed a controlled substance, meperidine (commonly known as demerol).

O’Malley said the doctor dispensed such drugs despite a restriction on his DEA controlled substance registration certificate and his CNMI license to practice medicine.