Lawsuit filed against doctor

NORTH VERNON, Ind. -- Several families have sued a doctor convicted of overprescribing OxyContin, using a state law that holds drug dealers liable for civil damages.\nRandolph W. Lievertz, a former Indianapolis physician, is serving a prison term of more than four years after pleading guilty to seven counts of unlawfully distributing the painkiller and one count of Medicaid fraud.\nBut the families of several former OxyContin users in Jennings County say the prison sentence and $28,000 restitution ordered by a judge in March was not punishment enough.\n"I think he got a smack on the hands, is all. I think he should have got more. He deserved more," Judy Alcorn, whose 18-year-old grandson died after taking OxyContin at a party, told The Indianapolis Star for a story Wednesday.\nLievertz prescribed more than $550,000 of OxyContin to Medicaid recipients, according to investigators. Prosecutors said Lievertz prescribed about $130,000 worth of OxyContin to a Jennings County woman who in turn sold the drug to others in the county about 75 miles southeast of Indianapolis.\nAlcorn, who also is director of the Jennings County Alcohol and Drug Program, is one of 20 people who sued Lievertz in May under the 1998 Drug Dealer Liability Act.\nOnly 13 other states, including Illinois and Michigan, have similar laws. The laws make drug dealers liable in civil court to people such as victims injured by a driver under the influence of drugs or families who've lost a child to a drug overdose.\nSupporters say the potential of civil damages could act as a deterrent to drug dealers even if they avoid criminal prosecution. Critics maintain the law is largely cosmetic and does little real good.\nLievertz's attorney, Roscoe Stovall Jr., said using the law to sue a physician for prescribing a drug sets a dangerous precedent by equating doctors with street criminals.\nBut an attorney for the families said the lawsuit, which was filed in Jennings Circuit Court, was appropriate.\n"This has literally destroyed many families in this area," said Scott Benkie. "These people were looking for some justice beyond what was involved in the criminal case."\nSimilar lawsuits in other states have had mixed results.\nA Michigan lawsuit in 1995 resulted in a $1 million judgment for the siblings of a drug-addicted baby and more than $7 million to the city of Detroit to help combat drug activity. But the baby's siblings collected only $11,000.\nA South Dakota jury in 2000 awarded a woman whose husband was killed in a head-on collision with a driver under the influence of methamphetamine a $268 million judgment against the dealer who supplied the drugs. She has yet to receive the money.\nAlcorn said the Jennings County case is not just about money.\n"No amount of money in this world is going to bring Greg back, and it never will," Alcorn said. "It's to let you know, 'Hey, we're highly upset. We don't want this to happen anymore."