ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702100053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
A CHRISTIANSBURG MAN was found guilty Thursday of illegally distributing controlled substances.
A Christiansburg doctor who continued to write prescriptions after losing his medical license was sentenced to nearly five years in prison by a federal judge Thursday.
Daniel R. Holliman was convicted of unlawfully distributing controlled substances and providing false information on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration application required by doctors who prescribe drugs.
Holliman said last year that he continued working at diet clinics in Christiansburg and Salem to pay living expenses after he lost his license because of drug and alcohol problems. He limited his medical work to performing physicals and prescribing appetite suppressants, he said.
"Basically, I was trying to pay the rent and child support," Holliman said.
Holliman was scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday but failed to appear in court after drinking the night before and having a panic attack, said his attorney, Jimmy Turk. Holliman had been released into a 30-day alcohol treatment program after pleading guilty in November and was doing well until Sunday or Monday, Turk said.
U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson sentenced him to 57 months and recommended that he serve his time at the federal prison in Butner, N.C., which has treatment programs.
Each of the 609 Percocet pills that Holliman prescribed, rather than the amount of narcotic in each, was used to calculate the sentence, and it was higher than he had expected, Turk said. Wilson gave the former doctor the lowest sentence he could under federal guidelines.
Holliman was licensed to practice medicine in Virginia in April 1984. He later moved to California, where his medical license was revoked because of substance abuse.
Virginia suspended Holliman's license in 1994 because of a suspension in Wisconsin. He got his license in Virginia back, but it was suspended again last February, based on the California suspension, according to state Board of Medicine records.
Records of orders by the state disciplinary board include evidence submitted in all three states that indicates Holliman failed drug tests after being ordered to quit his use of alcohol and prescription drugs.
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