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Thursday, March 06, 2003     Page: 6A

WILKES-BARRE
   
Mom, son convicted
    on drug charges
   

   
A Philadelphia man, awaiting trial on a homicide charge, and his mother
were convicted Wednesday of numerous drug violations.
   
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. found
Fernando Nunez, 19, guilty of criminal conspiracy, possession of heroin,
cocaine and crack cocaine, possession with intent to deliver heroin, cocaine
and crack cocaine and delivery of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine. Nunez was
found not guilty of a single count of firearms not to be carried without a
license.
   
Olszewski also found Malta Medina, 40, guilty of criminal conspiracy,
possession and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. She
was found not guilty of delivery of a controlled substance.
   
Police in December 2001 found 365 bags of heroin and large quantities of
cocaine and crack cocaine inside a Pittston Township hotel the two rented in
December 2001.
   
The two will be sentenced at 8:15 a.m. April 24.
   
Nunez is facing a homicide charge in Philadelphia in the death of a
Mountain Top man.
   
WILKES-BARRE
   
Man gets ARD in
   
illegal videotaping
   

   
Michael Winsock, 38, of Oak Street, Pittston, entered the county’s
Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program for videotaping a female
without her knowledge.
   
Winsock entered the program on a single count of invasion of privacy.
   
Police said Winsock in August hid a recorder in a home he had access to and
filmed a female as she got undressed.
   
Winsock told police he placed the recorder in the home because his mother
died in the home and he often felt her presence, police said. Also, some
things move in the home and he wanted to videotape it, police said.
   
The ARD program is offered to first-time offenders of minor crimes. If
successfully completed, a defendant could have the crime erased from their
record.
   
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark Ciavarella ordered Winsock
to serve a year in the program, pay prosecution costs and a $50 assessment
fee. He also must participate in 15 hours of community service and have no
contact with the victim.
   
WILKES-BARRE
   
Man’s estate files
   
suit against doctor
   

   
The estate of a Wilkes-Barre man who died from an accidental drug overdose
is suing the Nanticoke doctor who prescribed the medication, which included
methadone.
   
Patricia Carpenter, administrator to the estate of David Carpenter, filed
suit in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas against Dr. Laureano Manuel.
   
The complaint, filed Tuesday by attorney J. Lawrence Brown, says David
Carpenter, who had a complex medical history, including severe pain,
depression and opiate dependency, came under Manuel’s care in July 1999.
   
Despite knowing Carpenter was opiate dependent, Manuel continuously
prescribed narcotics. Manuel planned to treat Carpenter’s opiate dependency by
prescribing methadone.
   
The suit says Manuel violated various rules and regulations by prescribing
methadone in combination with other narcotics.
   
Carpenter died in 2000 from an accidental overdose. Toxicology results
showed a combination of drugs in Carpenter’s system, the suit says.
   
Manuel was charged in 2001 with four counts of Medicaid fraud and two
counts each of prescription of a controlled substance outside medical
treatment standards, prescription of a controlled substance to a drug
dependent person and acquisition of a controlled substance by fraud.
   
Officials said that from 1998 and May 2000, Manuel wrote prescriptions for
drug addicts for various drugs, such as the painkiller OxyContin and
methadone.
   
He was convicted of several charges and sentenced to five to 10 years in
prison.