Judge says doctor who fueled painkiller ‘epidemic’ must go to prison now

Federal prosecutors say longtime physician James Tinnell has contributed to the "epidemic" of prescription drug abuse in the Las Vegas Valley.

Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt had no trouble believing that in May, when he sentenced Tinnell to two years in prison for unlawfully distributing the addictive painkiller oxycodone.

Tinnell, 75, is supposed to surrender to federal prison authorities on Friday.

Late last week, his lawyer, George Carter, filed an emergency motion seeking to extend the surrender date for six months to allow Tinnell to seek medical treatment for a variety of "serious and life-threatening" ailments, including prostate cancer, ruptured discs in his back and an irregular heartbeat.

"Without close monitoring and religious adherence to his medication requirements, defendant will, in all likelihood, simply expire from insufficient care," Carter wrote.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Crane Pomerantz opposed the 11th-hour move, and on Monday, Hunt bluntly denied the motion, paving the way for Tinnell's surrender.

With sarcasm rarely seen in a written judicial order, Hunt said he was skeptical of Tinnell's medical claims, all of which could be monitored by prison authorities during the doctor's incarceration.

Tinnell's treating physicians do not "paint the same bleak picture" portrayed by Carter, Hunt wrote

What Hunt particularly found hard to believe was Tinnell's insistence that he was dealing with back injuries suffered 40 years ago as an Army paratrooper.

"He claims he is still undergoing treatment for his back problems," Hunt wrote.

"Yet there is no record referring to this 'treatment.' "

Then came the kicker: "Perhaps the good doctor is self-medicating with the oxycodone he so generously prescribed for others (without the benefit of medical examinations or reports)."

Hunt concluded that "if these back problems have persisted for decades, they will not be resolved in another six months of treatment."

He said he viewed the defense motion as an effort by Tinnell to delay serving his punishment.

In his plea agreement with the government last year, Tinnell admitted that he intentionally distributed oxycodone between July 2010 and April 2011 without a legitimate medical purpose.

Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said Tinnell was one of 70 people, including four doctors, charged by local federal prosecutors with unlawfully distributing prescription painkillers in the past two years.

Tinnell represented himself as a pain management specialist and an advocate of medical marijuana therapy, according to prosecutors.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.