Kofi Shaw-Taylor, MD, is a 67 y/o urologist in Baltimore, MD who, by taking up the gauntlet of treating pain, has found himself the target of a law-breaking Justice Department.
Dr. Kofi Shaw-Taylor’s office was raided in April, 2017 from which he was indicted on one count Medicaid fraud. That shows the whole process is illegal. That charge was just an excuse to enter his office illegally. Any doctor can be charged with Medicaid fraud. Now, after combing through his records to create a crime, he has been indicted for 289 counts of conspiracy to commit drug distribution and other charges.
To leave a paper trail, since they work with the government against doctors, the Maryland Board of Physicians suspended Dr. Shaw-Taylor’s medical license in May, 2017 based on the assumption that prescription drugs are causing increased opioid-related deaths. The real cause is government overreach into medicine, closing offices and sending pain patients to the streets for self-treatment. States have jumped on the gravy train set by the Feds, putting criminal charges on doctors for medical care. I’m not familiar with all state laws, but legitimate pain management should not be one of them. Instead, in order to pad the state treasury coffers, doctors are being attacked with blame for the opioid epidemic.
And so, as admitted to the media, the attorney general’s office partners with local police and DEA agents to build the cases against physicians. According to the media, this case is among the first indictments from a new partnership of local police and federal agents working together in Maryland. Stating “Law Enforcement must use all available resources to fight the opioid epidemic. Medical professionals must and will be held accountable,” Chief Terrence B. Sheridan of the Baltimore County Police Department shows that even local law enforcement gets paid through “drug money”. DEA Special Agent Karl Colder, adding that four of five new heroin addicts begin by abusing pills. That’s just pure DEA propaganda because they’d rather attack easy targets like doctors than go after the real crooks—the illegal traffickers. “Go where the money is and the guns aren’t” as stated by a former US Attorney turned sides.
Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh says Dr. Shaw-Taylor killed two patients. Now two patients may have died, but the doctor didn’t “kill” them. That is pure propaganda published to tamper with the potential jury pool. This is an area that some states are starting to realize, is not under the doctor’s power—how the patients take the medications. Hopefully that charge won’t fly in Maryland.
Kofi Shaw-Taylor and nine co-defendants operated two clinics in which he is being charged with prescribing controlled substances “outside the scope of professional practice and without legitimate medical purpose”. This uses the phrase from the Controlled Substance Act that actually exempts physicians from attack. According to the law, if a doctor prescribes a controlled drug in his office for a medical purpose, he is not subject to the law. But the DOJ is now expert on creating crime where there is none for prosecution. Jobs, bonuses, promotions in the DOJ. That’s what it’s all about.
Dr. Shaw-Taylor, worked in 2 locations: Starlife Wellness Center and Westside Medical Group. The nurses, therapists and office workers are listed as co-conspirators. That’s so that the DOJ can threaten the employees so that they perjure themselves on the witness stand in order to convict the doctor. So if you understand their MO, that proves that the practice was legitimate, and they are witness tampering in order to convict.
They are also claiming Medicaid fraud. It was reported that Medicaid patients were prescribed medication but visits were not billed to Medicaid. That is not illegal. It could be that the patients didn’t even tell the office they were Medicaid. Or a simple billing error. The medical board stated that he had trouble finding qualified employees.
Then it was reported that people came to the clinic from large distances. Well now, with the inability to find a pain management physician in many areas, legitimate patients are forced to travel. Some of my patients in Virginia, in 2011, had to go to Georgia to find treatment. That doesn’t make the clinic a “drug dealer”, but compassionate. Compassion is also reflected by the fact that Dr. Shaw-Taylor accepted Medicaid (over 1000 patients)—the care of which doesn’t even pay the operating costs.
Just one demonstration of how the use of the Controlled Substance Act is being used illegally against doctors. Here are some illegal offenses in the CSA:
- §858. Endangering human life while illegally manufacturing controlled substance
- §859. Distribution to persons under age twenty-one
- §860. Distribution or manufacturing in or near schools and colleges
- §860a. Consecutive sentence for manufacturing or distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, methamphetamine on premises where children are present or reside
These are obviously targeting the illegal drug market, not physician’s offices. Dr. Shaw-Taylor, however, is being charged with 92 counts of distribution near a school because one of his offices is located near a school. But this was not the intent of the law—to attack a doctor because of his location. If these laws were intended to be used against doctors, than any pain treatment for a person under 21 would be liable per §859. Is that the next illegal direction they will go? So that children can’t get relief from pain following surgery or sickle cell anemia, or cancer? Wake up America! See what the DOJ is doing and derail this gravy train in the courtroom.
One final point. Dr. Shaw-Taylor is being charged illegally with the CSA, stating that he dispensed controlled substances without medical purpose. That is using a law illegally. But what is even worse is a City Government convicting him and Dr. Babaturk on their website before a trial has even taken place. I should think that would be grounds for dismissal.
The Town of Morningside Maryland website states:
Two Maryland Physicians Indicted On Drug Charges After Illegally Prescribing Controlled Substance
Illegally convicted by government before trial
Another government error is assuming that pain patients are addicts. As a result of his office being shut down, health officials alerted Baltimore medical providers, emergency service providers, hospital emergency rooms and treatment centers, of a potential spike in drug withdrawals and overdoses among local patients. But they make the announcement by saying:
Dear Partners, A significant number of patients struggling with addiction may be at an increased risk for overdose and/or go into withdrawal without medical support.
That is a terrible conclusion, and is driving the opiaphobia in America today. With all the people using opioids appropriately for pain, only 1-2% become addicted.
“The concern here is that patients of this prescriber who may have been receiving opioids prescribed by him could go into withdrawal because they don’t have access to medications that they’re used to taking, or could seek out other substances on the street and wind up overdosing,” Mark O’Brien, Baltimore City Health Department Director of Opioid Overdose and Treatment said.
The government obviously knows that shutting down doctors’ offices forces people to the street for self-treatment. So why do they do it? It is my belief that the government is shortsightedly trying to solve the burgeoning baby-boomer rise in government costs through legal genocide. Kill off the 5 “expendable” populations of Medicare/Medicaid insured, disabled, poor, and elderly.
Supposedly the state of Maryland planned on starting a new policy in July that required prior authorization to write opioids. Since it is usually a white-collar paper pusher, sometimes with only a high school education making those prior auth decisions, that means that someone without a medical degree is dispensing. THAT, folks, is against the law. I wonder if they have gotten that through. It just goes to show how the government considers themselves above the law. One in five Marylanders will need prior authorization through the state’s Medicaid program. Is this another form of legal genocide, forcing government insured to street drugs and probable overdose?
I hope the authorities read this and understand that drugs don’t cause addiction. For the REAL cause, go to the home page or Videos. I am also available to come to Maryland and give talks/seminars on these topics.
Kofi Shaw-Taylor Addendum
Dr. Shaw-Taylor accepted a plea agreement in 2018 and was sentenced to 5 years in prison so he is now released. So where are you in helping to end these attacks, Dr. Shaw-Taylor? Anyone in communication with him, please tell him to work on forgiveness and when he is ready, join us in the effort to restore humanity to the nation.
To end these attacks, restore pain management, and provide compensation to all the families that have been destroyed by government overreach, we must get the Controlled Substance Act repealed. Join Doctorsofcourage to get that done. Learn what we teach and spread the word. NO DRUG CAUSES ADDICTION!! Let’s end the War on Drugs, Doctors and Pain Patients, end the black market, solve the southern border crisis, and restore proper pain management. It CAN be done!
Addendum from the author:
I have failed in my mission to end these attacks on doctors and pain patients. Through John Bevere’s book The Bait of Satan, I have figured out why—my lack of forgiveness to those who attacked me. As in Mark 11: 24-26:
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
And when you do not do the will of the Father, you are estranged from him and he will ignore you. So we all must forgive the agents who attacked us in order for things to be made right through any of our works.
Jesus said
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
But we cannot lay down our lives for God unless we know Him well enough to trust Him. We must have the assurance that He would never do anything to harm us. He always looks out for what He knows is in our best interest. As a nation, those of us suffering from these attacks must understand that we are serving as God’s messengers of love. We must forgive those who persecute us and love them instead, following God’s will for us. Then and only then will we see fruits from our labor.
So I hope that everyone who has suffered from what happened to the doctor can trust the Lord, forgive those who have hurt you, and help bring this country back to the God-fearing country that our forefathers founded. Then, and only then, can you be a part of the effort to stop these attacks. I look forward to that day.
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.
Get a free gift to learn how the government is breaking the law to attack your doctor: Click here to get my free gift
Dr. Shaw-Taylor agreed to a pre-determined plea of 5 years in prison. So another innocent doctor is down the tube, who didn’t bother to use the resources we had to offer for his defense. Stupid…stupid.
“Dr. Shaw-Taylor distributed strong narcotics without medical necessity in exchange for cash,” Assistant Attorney General Marilee Miller said during the hearing.
In asking the judge not to send him to prison,Shaw-Taylor said he built a dedicated practice to help his patients manage chronic pain, and his work was a part of his mission as a Christian.
“It was my avenue for serving my God,” he said.
But he said that his medical practices were wrong.
“The actions I took and directed violated the standards of my profession and the law,” he said.
http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/for_the_record/ac-cn-shaw-opioid-sentencing-0803-
story.html
Never believe any admission of guilt stated on the stand of a plea agreement. You are forced to say things admitting wrong when you did no wrong. It’s part of the system.
The problem should have been caught by the DEA a long time ago. We know that there are physicians who participated in “pill mills”. Very different from those treating for chronic pain. The DEA fell asleep at the wheel. Not monitoring huge orders from pharmaceutical companies made these pill mills possible. The dea can spend gazillion dollars regulating me and those like me. The opioid crisis will not cease until they go after the criminals.My sister is treated for chronic pain related to an accident that nearly took her life. Regulations to stop the opioid crisis r focused on law abiding people who r treated for bonified illness. So, they r doing something vs nothing . Like so much of the federal govt. looks good on paper
Sorry, but what you “know” is just propaganda. I have reviewed hundreds of cases of doctors since the very beginning with Dr. Graves. I haven’t found a single one that could be actually charged with committing the crime of selling prescriptions on the street. Every one was doing their job of evaluating and treating patients, and by the law, are exempt from prosecution. Since drugs are not the cause of addiction, we really have no use for the DEA. They are targeting the doctors because they are low-hanging fruit. Legitimate patients like your sister, or even illegitimate patients seeing opioids by faking pain, are desirable casualties to the government.
I can appreciate your blog regarding Kofi Shaw-Taylor, but just as the DEA and Federal Government May have put an intentional spin on the words of the CSA to serve an intended purpose, so did you in your blog. In my opinion, when it comes to public safety, there should be no grey areas. It’s black and white. Justice in this case should not be determined based on words and the context in which they’ve been used. If you have thoroughly read the case file supporting the decision to rescind Shaw Taylor’s license then there is no possible way to deny that he was prescribing outside the scope of what scheduled medications are intended. The sheer fact that the government worded the advance warning to medical partners referring to “patients” as “addicts” is simply supported by Shaw Taylor’s extensive list of patients receiving MAT medications. This man was nothing close to compassionate I can assure you from personal experience. He acted recklessly and was motivated by greed, on my own opinion. With a specialty in Urology, why else would he be the target of a DEA investigation? Because he had his hands heavily involved in Pain Management as well as an alarmingly high number of patients receiving Medication Assisted Treatment for opiate dependence. His practices had become sloppy, for instance, allowing secretaries to handle patients prescriptions and leaving them in patient files for patients to later pick up without being seen. This, in itself, is a clear demonstration of his lack of compassion and furthermore a blatant neglect of his patients best interest and safety. Had you ever been to his clinic personally I’m certain that you would agree. Again, although the DEA May have used words written in the text if the law to their advantage, which is not necessarily the appropriate way to justify an investigation, Shaw Taylor abused his precribing privilege and risked patients well being and safety by using the law for his own selfish gain. It had become increasingly obvious, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a need for investigation.
Naturally, you are entitled to your opinion, but I stand by my post. Using the CSA against ANY doctor is misinterpretation. The CSA states that only the DOCTOR can determine what is “legitimate”. Many surgeons move to more sedate practices as they age. As long as you learn proper treatment, there is nothing criminal about that. If a doctor does something wrong in his treatment, it is a medical board issue, or a patient malpractice claim, not a criminal indictment.