Terence Sasaki MD was a neurologist in Elmhurst, NY. So how could he be convicted of violation of the Controlled Substance Act in the state of Ohio, a state that he had never been in or flew over before his trial? Listen to his story:
Whistleblower Dr Sasaki had actually called and sent numerous emails to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in early 2007 notifying them of potentially illegal activities by others. The DEA met with him on July 27, 2007 and took his information without doing anything about those Dr. Sasaki had told them about.
Three years later, in April of 2010, after the conspiracy had sent out over 1million more narcotic pills, the Department of Justice (DOJ), US Attorney’s Office (USAO), and DEA indicted Dr. Sasaki along with those very people he had warned them about.
Although DEA Diversion Program Manager Richard Springer testified that Parkison did NOT take notes, DEA Special Agent Tyler Parkison claimed he did take notes. Parkison had 3 versions of notes, and Dr. Sasaki apparently only confessed in DEA Parkison’s third version. That version, which was his 2nd revision, was typed up 2 weeks after the interrogation, after Parkison spoke to many others including those who were not at the meeting and decided what Dr. Terry Sasaki should confess to. No other DEA employee, government witness, or anyone else either verified or testified that DEA Tyler Parkison took notes NOR that Dr. Sasaki gave a confession, to this day.
Interestingly whether Dr. Sasaki confessed or did not confess to distributing or facilitating the distribution of narcotics in 2007, the DEA actually renewed Dr. Sasaki’s DEA narcotics certificate, expanded his ability to prescribe narcotics by removing the restriction to only be able to prescribe in state or federal institutions, never took any available administrative actions against him (eg, removing his medical license), etc. In fact, DEA Tyler Parkison admitted that he never even told Dr. Sasaki to stop.
So to summarize, if DEA Special Agent Tyler Parkison is telling the truth, then the DEA helped Dr. Sasaki distribute MORE narcotics after his supposed confession and waited 3 years to let him addict and kill as many people as possible before arresting him. To try to give Dr. Sasaki a motive for confessing, Tyler Parkison testified that Dr. Sasaki asked for immunity in his email, but the email doesn’t contain anything about immunity only confidentiality.
Not surprisingly, despite DEA Special Agent Tyler Parkison testifying that the conspiracy used Dr. Terry Sasaki’s DEA number on scripts, the prescriptions don’t have Dr Sasaki’s DEA number. There’s someone else’s phone number and address on the prescriptions, not Dr. Sasaki’s. Although Parkison testified that Dr Sasaki’s orginal signatures were on the prescriptions, they actually contained 855 identical, pixelated signatures of “T Sasaki” on which no handwriting expert or analysis was done.
There was no confirmation that any narcotics were issued, delivered or received by anyone on scripts stamped with Dr. Sasaki’s name. There was no testimony or evidence from any patients who received drugs or prescriptions from Dr. Sasaki, let alone anyone being addicted, overdosed or dying. In fact, there was no evidence any patients of the entire conspiracy had OD’d or died. And the pharmacist who handled the prescriptions denied ever seeing or speaking to Dr. Sasaki even despite the suspicious scripts.
In fact, the actual masterminds of the conspiracy, the Mendels, were a physician’s assistant couple, had made more than $1million & had several previous run-ins with the law for prescription fraud. But the DOJ nor DEA ever indicted, arrested, or even brought them for testimony. They were actually the ones to send James Hazelwood Dr. Sasaki’s credentials. Hazelwood testified that he had never communicated with Dr. Sasaki in any form or fashion.
Though Dr Sasaki was indicted as a leader of the conspiracy, he was not on or even mentioned in the >3100 wiretaps/recordings of the conspiracy nor their emails. The DOJ and DEA did not even bother searching Dr. Sasaki’s home, office, storage, computers, etc despite claiming that he was a leader in the conspiracy.
The government’s own witnesses such as the patients, despite getting deals from the government, didn’t even know who Dr. Sasaki was. Dr. Cheslow who supposedly was recruited by Dr. Sasaki to distribute narcotics actually testified that Dr. Sasaki wasn’t approving narcotics during the time he worked with him and Dr. Sasaki actually told him it was illegal to issue narcotic prescriptions in that way.
While the IRS, prosecutor, and his own attorney claimed that Dr. Terence Sasaki made a hundred thousand dollars, bank records conclusively show that Dr. Sasaki did not make a single dime. So not only did Dr. Sasaki “confess” to many felonies for no reason, he also committed those felonies for no money.
The supposed experts were an OB/GYN and a pharmacist even though Dr. Sasaki was a neurologist. OB/GYN John C. Nelson had learned pain “on the job” and did not even know what controlled substance schedule the drug in the case was. Pharmacist Carmine Catizone had only practiced for 2 years but was allowed by Judge Solomon Oliver to give expert testimony about not just medicine when he was not a doctor but also the law when he was not a lawyer.
But most lethal to Dr. Sasaki were his own attorneys that he paid ~$300,000, because they threw the case, took a dive, and helped prosecutors convict him. Jerome Jay Milano, a ethics professor at Case Western Law School, DueJong Jenny Kim, and Meghan Rha, all filed affidavits and testified to increase Dr. Sasaki’s sentence in prison. In addition, they handed over to prosecutors all emails that they had written to or received from their client Terence Sasaki MD during the course of their over two year representation of him. Jay Milano, Jenny Kim, and Meghan Rha wanted to silence their client Dr Sasaki with Judge Solomon Oliver’s approval.
When in prison, the DOJ went out of their way to send Dr. Sasaki on “diesel therapy” ~14,000 miles back and forth across the country losing Dr. Sasaki’s legal materials and mail. They did this right after the USAO/DOJ had filed a motion to dismiss Dr. Sasaki’s criminal appeal. So Dr. Sasaki was not even able to properly respond. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Dr. Sasaki’s appeal for not obeying an order that he indisputably never received and that even if he received, he could not obey because he was a minimum security classified prisoner being kept at a maximum security prison by the DOJ.
To ensure that he would not be able to reveal the truth, they forced him to go homeless in the streets of Cleveland, Ohio instead of returning him either to NYC or Hawaii where he had support. The DOJ even destroyed his identification papers which he is only now replacing. The DOJ, USAO, DEA, IRS, prison, & Sasaki’s own attorneys did everything they could to obliterate Terence Sasaki MD to prevent him from revealing to us the truth about them.
If you look at the judge, prosecutors, DEA employees, attorneys, etc. in this case, you will find that they have thrown numerous people of color under the bus, including medical professionals. With your help, we can stop them.
If you want to reach out to Dr. Sasaki, you can go to his website https://TSasaki.org or contact us.
We Must Remove Qualified Immunity, If It Exists
Dr. Sasaki’s story points to the fact that the United States government is not interested in ending the illegal distribution of opioids, but to attack minority medical professionals. If removing minority medical professionals was not the government’s agenda, they would have used Dr. Sasaki’s whistleblowing immediately in 2007 to indict those who were actually guilty, not tell him to continue his work, simply to build up a case against him. This should be recognized as a crime by those agents involved.
Are these law-breaking government agents protected by immunity? Possibly not. I haven’t researched this, but it is a future consideration. Here is an article that leads me to the conclusion that we do have an avenue of making these lawbreakers accountable for their actions:
https://ij.org/issues/project-on-immunity-and-accountability/frequently-asked-questions-about-ending-qualified-immunity/.
Linda Cheek is a teacher and disenfranchised medical doctor, turned activist, author, and speaker. A victim of prosecutorial misconduct and outright law-breaking of the government agencies DEA, DHHS, and DOJ, she hopes to be a part of exonerating all doctors illegally attacked through the Controlled Substance Act. She holds the key to success, as she can offset the government propaganda that drugs cause addiction with the truth: The REAL Cause of Drug Abuse.
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This story is very similar to my dad’s story. Clinton Battle MD
They are all basically the same. The government uses a cookie cutter template to attack us. Easy peasy, and they bring home everything we doctors have worked for all our lives.
The same travesty happened to a Neurologist/Neuroscientist he has many accomplishments, is well-respected, and worked for him personally for over 9 years. and he was railroaded by Drs. that he sold his practice to and the practice manager. He is 86 years old and is spending 5 years in Federal Prison. His trial was a circus and his Expert witnesses were not allowed to even testify regarding his expertise in pain disorders. If you would like to email me back, I think you know who I am regarding to. He helped save many lives and helped people continue to work, enjoy their families and not consider offing them selves. This happened in rural Ohio.
Hello Linda
I am very grateful for your courage against this judicial slaughter of our Physicians. You write an article about my husband Dr David Jankowski many months ago. Well sentencing is tomorrow but disgustingly the Judge (“who admitted to not knowing anything about restitution”) told the Prosecutor he would have to tell him what to do! Well the slapped my husband with a 35 million judgement, which was the full billing for 4 completely separate run offices ( docs, billers,patients) but they were a “super group” so they all billed under one SPG group. My husbands portion of billing was 2.3 of the 35 million. But out very unjust government is going after all 35 million. I think all of our Doctors, who dedicate their lives to caring for sick people should know what the government can do to them. It’s disgusting and unethical!! Obviously we are immediately appealing this injustice! I don’t know how, but the medical community needs to fight back!
I’m so sorry to hear what they are doing to destroy your lives forever. But it doesn’t surprise me. The government is only out for money now, not justice or ethics. Yes, we need to stop it. The easiest way is to get behind what I teach, and get the CSA repealed. You can join Doctorsofcourage membership as his representative, as an ambassador. Go to the membership levels for that application. Or email me at [email protected]
Hello
As I am, unfortunately, the wife of one of the feds’ and prosecutors’ victims, it is such an atrocity of what we called justice in this world! It is appalling, the unethical illegal methods they use to succeed in their mission! I do pray that all physicians and politicians could wake up to this abuse of power in the name of money. Your courage and bravery to keep this fight up is beyond amazing! Thank you!
What I want to say is not printable.
Dr. Sasaki case sounds bizarre, and does not make any sense!
Just like your case, and mine!
I had called medicare regarding my creditialing by the clinic owner I had worked for two years getting through my probation. She was illegally billing under physician names that were no longer in the office, and never billed patients under my NPI #. That is when I went to her, confronted her, and she called the board with lies about me, to retaliate against my revealing her incompetence in medical billing. And the board believed her lies!
These occurances are bizarre and the government (governors office or attorney generals office), do not care about our medical license. This is so wrong what is happening to medical professionals. Until 60 minutes, or 20/20 reports on it, no one realizes this is happening to us! No lawyers can defend us against the boards, and our hands are tied. The government is just ignorant to medical board errors, and they turn their heads to innocent medical providers. It is an injustice to our medical profession, and like me we all lose our office, our homes, our income, our life. So unfair.
It might look bizarre to the average person, but you and I know it is standard operating procedure with the DOJ. That’s why medical professionals need to write their own stories to put here as a post, but also on the victims page. So people can visit the website and understand the Gestapo/Hitlerist government we have now. How about writing a post about your case?
Just like in my case, they just want to build up the crime for more charges. In my case the DEA agent was even on tape telling the doctor in my office doing the prescribing (legally I might add), to keep doing what she was doing. But then they charged ME with using her DEA number. Amazing! These people will spend eternity in hell if they don’t get just punishment in this life.