DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Police have charged an Iowa doctor with over-prescribing narcotic painkillers that eight patients later used to overdose, prosecutors said.
Daniel Baldi, a Des Moines, Iowa, physician, was charged with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter. One of the overdose victims was Paul Gray, a founding member of the rap-metal band Slipknot, who was found dead of an overdose in May 2010.
Baldi's lawyer professed his client's innocence and said prosecutors had crossed a line, turning tragic deaths into criminal charges against a doctor who was trying to help patients.
"It is unprecedented to turn unfortunate deaths or medical results into a crime against a doctor," attorney Guy Cook told the Des Moines Register.
The paper reported that such criminal charges are rare, citing interviews with industry experts.
Baldi already faces an inquiry by the Iowa Board of Medicine that could result in his medical license being suspended. Three of the families of the overdose victims have filed separate wrongful death lawsuits, claiming Baldi's treatment at Iowa Health System pain clinic, which has since closed, led to their relatives' deaths.
The criminal complaint charges Baldi knowingly wrote large prescriptions for patients he knew to have a drug addiction.
