Coakley Campaign Worried About 'Over-Zealous' Track Record?

CAPE COD, Mass. - May 7, 2014 - PRLog -- There is a genuine concern that "over-zealous" prosecution may finally catch up to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley as her campaign for Governor of MA heats up. A history of questionable cases under her watch will likely be spotlighted by opponents looking to derail her bid for the office.

Starting with a case going back more than twenty years involving a day care center in which 'prompted memories' of four year old children were used to convict a mother, daughter and son, it seems Ms Coakley may have painted a large target on her back.

"The charges against the family that owned the day care were so preposterous that Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly took it's first editorial position on a case, calling the prosecutors 'unwilling to admit they might have sent innocent people to jail for crimes that had never occurred.'" (Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall St Journal, 1/14/10)

Dorothy Rabinowitz is the author of "No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusations, False Witness And Other Terrors Our Times" (Free Press, 2003), and goes into further detail about this particular case, especially targeting Coakley's leadership.

Other problematic cases: a British nanny that killed an infant in her charge but served virtually no prison time; a politician charged with using his (then) current office to promote his own campaign for the governorship; a prosecution that failed spectacularly on it's premise alone.

Currently Ms. Coakley is championing the cause of gambling in Massachusetts, despite overwhelming opposition from voters.

However, the case that may prove to be the final nail in Ms. Coakley's campaign coffin involves a physician charged with Medicaid and Medicare fraud. The AG's office used a suspended attorney and convicted felon along with a borderline psychotic and drug addicted former employee as primary witnesses against Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore, charging him with an inexplicable 'kickback' scheme.

Assuming the case comes to trial (the state has asked for and received numerous continuances) it will be revealed that the convicted felon ran 'sober' homes that were forced to close; his business partner owns a competing laboratory testing service that filed a lawsuit against the physician for 'unfair business practices'; that his own track record is so spotted with violations that he was suspended from practicing law. The tangled web of highly questionable business and personal relationships involving this witness puts an unusual element of intrigue into the prosecution's case.

The former employee, dismissed because of repeated relapses, has been posting some 85,000+ libelous accusations against the physician online in the past two years. The posts are so outrageous that many sites have taken them down as a pre-emptory to being sued. As primary witnesses, it appears that the state's case may crumble at trial, especially since Kishore has been strongly denying the charges and refused all offers to settle.

This could be particularly awkward for the Attorney General, as Kishore's non-narcotic treatment program had proven to be exponentially more successful than other  methods, gathering awards locally, nationally and internationally. The physician had 52 clinics around the state, all of which were forced to close because of the charges, in turn forcing thousand of patients onto methadone, or nothing at all.

Three years later and the state is wrestling with an enormous spike in drug overdoses, many resulting in death. Experts are predicting that the death toll and overdose incidents will continue to rise, and are frustrated with the lack of viable solutions to the problem.

Publicity surrounding Coakley's role in closing down the only successful drug treatment program in the state, and the very predictable consequences may aid in irreparably damaging her campaign.

Supporters of Dr. Kishore have been actively working to publicize his case. They contend the charges are flimsy if not wholly inaccurate and destroyed his business, damaged his reputation, bankrupted him and left thousands of patients without treatment.

A web site has been set up, www.KishoresStory.info that explains in more detail the specifics of the case, and may prove to be fertile territory for any opposition research.