Doctor’s penalty hearing still set

LITTLE ROCK — Despite requests from defense attorneys to postpone next Monday’s sentencing hearings for Dr. Randeep Mann and his wife, Sangeeta “Sue” Mann, both proceedings remained on the court schedule as of Tuesday evening.

Also Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller ruled, over defense attorneys’ objections, that Dr. Trent Pierce may make an oral victim-impact statement at the hearing, in addition to one he has already submitted in writing.

Pierce is the Arkansas State Medical Board chairman who was severely injured by an explosion in February 2009 outside his West Memphis home. Jurors found that Mann orchestrated the explosion in retaliation for the board’s repeated suspensions of Mann’s prescription-writing privileges and for a new investigation the board was starting that had the potential to strip Mann of his medical license forever.

On Feb. 16, Miller issued a one-sentence denial of Sue Mann’s postponement request, filed one day earlier, which was based partially on the premise that her newly hired attorney,Jeff Rosenzweig, not being the same attorney who represented her at trial, needed time to review the trial testimony.

Then on Monday, defense attorneys for Randeep Mann also sought a postponement, arguing that a recently completed presentence investigation by U.S. probation officers raises issues that require further inquiry concerning Dr. Mann’s penalty range and the amount of restitution the government is seeking for Pierce.

Erin Cassinelli Couch, one of Dr. Mann’s attorneys, said Tuesday that although no order had been filed, the court has notified her that it plans to deny her motion as well.

“Nobody has stated any reason why,” Couch said,adding, “It’s very disappointing that he has made this decision in spite of the compelling need for additional time.”

Mann, a Russellville physician, was convicted Aug. 9, after a month-long trial, of use of a weapon of mass destruction (a grenade attached to a tire that was rigged to explode when Pierce moved it), use of an explosive resulting in personal injury, possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of a machine gun, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and aiding and abetting tampering with evidence.

The same jury convicted Sangeeta Mann of obstructing a federal investigation into the explosion.

Prosecutors said Randeep Mann knew that Pierce, who carried extra clout as board chairman, was opposed to Mann’s attempts to regain his prescription-writing privileges, which had mostrecently been suspended for three years on the basis of complaints about his patients dying of overdoses.

In a response filed Tuesday objecting to Dr. Mann’s request for a postponement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon said the issues raised in the sealed pre-sentence report are “simple, uncomplicated questions of fact” that don’t require additional inquiry and argument.

Gordon also said that prosecutors gave defense attorneys access to records supporting the proposed restitution amount of more than $1.7 million. Defense attorneys said the amount includes more than $1 million in “projected loss of future income” and “loss of past income” and complained that the calculations were based on mere “assumptions” by Pierce’s personal accountant.

Gordon suggested that ifthe restitution issue requires more time, Mann can be sentenced Monday anyway, with the restitution issue to be determined more precisely within 90 days.

In a terse order on the issue of whether Pierce could submit both a written and an oral statement at sentencing, Miller noted that he has already heard extensive testimony and arguments about how the explosion affected Pierce, so any statement from him at sentencing will be “cumulative” and “will probably have little effect on the sentence.”

Still, Miller said, Pierce will have the right to speak. He also denied Mann’s attorneys’ request that the government fork over Pierce’s written victimimpact statement, saying, “He has no right to Dr. Pierce’s thoughts, whether Dr. Pierce chooses to give those thoughts verbally or put them in writing.”