Pharmacist to Plea Bargain in Diluting Case
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A pharmacist has reached a plea bargain on charges that he diluted chemotherapy drugs for cancer patients, his attorney said Monday.
Jean Paul Bradshaw, the lawyer, declined to specify what type of plea Robert R. Courtney would enter. But he said in “a case like this, it would be unusual for the government to agree to anything less than to a straight-out guilty plea.”
Bradshaw said Courtney’s plea addresses sentencing, but he declined to elaborate. The sentence will ultimately be decided by U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith.
Courtney had pleaded not guilty to all 20 charges. A change of plea hearing has been scheduled for today in federal court. If convicted on all charges, Courtney faced up to 196 years in prison.
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Earlier this month, prosecutors indicated that additional charges were possible.
Courtney has been jailed since Aug. 15, when he turned himself in.
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