Notorious Kansas City pharmacist Robert Courtney will not get early prison release
Convicted Kansas City pharmacist Robert Courtney will not be released early from federal prison, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said in a tweet Thursday afternoon.
Hawley posted on Twitter that the U.S. Department of Justice informed him they would not release Courtney seven years early as had been announced earlier this week.
Courtney, 67, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in December 2002 after diluting thousands of prescriptions, many of them for cancer patients. Federal officials had planned to release him early, along with many other inmates, because of coronavirus infections in the prison system.
News of Courtney’s intended release had provoked widespread outcry in the Kansas City area.
Missouri’s governor and members of the state’s congressional delegation wrote Thursday urging against releasing Courtney.
Gov. Mike Parson sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr asking that he hinder Courtney’s early release.
“It is impossible to express the heartache and devastation brought about by his intentional criminal acts, and he should remain in prison until his sentence is complete,” Parson wrote.
U.S. Sens. Hawley and Roy Blunt and U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II and Sam Graves also sent the same appeal to Barr on Thursday.
“He acted without consideration for the theft of his victims’ health and quality of life, and his actions can be described as no less than purposefully evil,” they wrote. “Courtney should serve the entirety of his sentence as penance for his crimes — both against his victims and against the public trust in medical care.”
Attorney Michael Ketchmark, whose law office was involved in more than 275 wrongful death lawsuits against Courtney, said receiving news that Courtney would not be freed was an “amazing feeling.”
Ketchmark said he learned of the decision from Hawley’s tweet. His office immediately began calling clients to tell them.
Two days earlier, Ketchman had been informed Courtney could be released as early as this week to a halfway house and from there, to home confinement.
Over the last few days, “we’ve taken literally hundreds of phone calls from people who were outraged,” Ketchman said. “I’ve personally been calling folks and there are tears of joy. It’s absolutely wonderful news.”
He credited Parson for intervening.
“It’s horrible, I think, that these families had to go through this, but it’s a tremendous credit to the Department of Justice,” he said. “And, through conversations I had yesterday with some of the top officials in Gov. Parson’s office, I believe that Gov. Mike Parson was instrumental in reaching out to folks in the highest levels in Attorney General Barr’s office and I believe that’s the reason that this was stopped.”
During an investigation that began in mid-2001, Courtney admitted to diluting 72 different medications over nearly a decade. Most were cancer treatment drugs, but others could have been used to treat AIDS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and other diseases.
Authorities estimated his scheme could have touched 4,200 patients.
Courtney’s insurance company agreed to pay $35 million to victims, and two pharmaceutical makers paid $71 million in settlements.
On July 9, Courtney filed a motion asking for compassionate release based on his age, health concerns and the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the motion, Courtney has suffered from hypertension, a stroke, three heart attacks, cancer and internal bleeding while in prison.
“The reality is that Courtney’s life is in jeopardy every day he is imprisoned while the COVID-19 pandemic rips through the BOP (Bureau of Prisons),” his attorney wrote in the court filing.
At least two COVID-19 cases have been identified at the federal prison in Littleton, Colorado, where Courtney is incarcerated.
The Star’s Liza Gutierrez and Katie Moore contributed reporting.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 1:44 PM.
