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'It's not right': Victims' families angry that notorious KC pharmacist leaving prison

Kansas City Star - 7/15/2020

Jul. 14--When Debra Allen received the email, she immediately thought of her father. She was glad he wasn't alive to read it.

The U.S. Justice Department was informing her that Robert Courtney, the infamous Kansas City pharmacist who went to prison for diluting the medications of thousands of patients, was getting out early, possibly this week.

Allen's father had been devastated that his wife of 52 years, Joyce Provance, was treated with Courtney's watered-down drugs and died from ovarian cancer in 2000.

Now Courtney is getting out of prison seven years short of his 30-year sentence as part of a Justice Department review that sends some prisoners to home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's not right," said Allen, who lives in Independence. "He said when he got sentenced that he was going to spend his whole time doing good things and make up. Well, pony up, guy. Serve your sentence."

Courtney, who is now 67, was sentenced in December 2002 and was projected to be released in May 2027.

Attorney Michael Ketchmark, who was involved in more than 275 wrongful death lawsuits against Courtney, said he was informed that the former pharmacist could be released first to a halfway house, then home confinement, expected to be in Trimble, Missouri, just north of Smithville.

"I think it's one thing as a society to show compassion to certain nonviolent criminals who are at risk of catching COVID, but it is horribly misplaced to allow Robert Courtney out of prison. He admitted to diluting over 98,000 prescription drugs," Ketchmark said. "He is a vicious monster who belongs in jail until the very last day of his sentence."

Said Allen: "I want them to reverse their decision."

'Taking advantage'

Allen received an email on July 9 from the Bureau of Prisons in Littleton, Colorado, where Courtney is incarcerated. Nearly 20 years ago, when Courtney went to prison, she signed up for a victim services program that kept her informed of his whereabouts in the prison system over the years.

"This notice is to inform you that Robert Courtney has been approved for placement in a Community Corrections Center, otherwise known as a halfway house, and will transfer from this institution on July 16, 2020," the email said.

"After the transfer, the inmate will be located at his/her home on home confinement and monitored."

The email went on to say that because of the pandemic, Attorney General William Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons "to place inmates who are at a minimal risk of recidivating in home confinement.

"Accordingly, Robert Ray Courtney has been reviewed and determined eligible for placement in Home Confinement to serve the remainder of his/her sentence."

"He is once again taking advantage of other people's illnesses," said Allen, a retired legal assistant for the Jackson County prosecutor's office. "He's gaining from all these people that have died (during the pandemic). It's super wrong."

Even though she's kept tabs on Courtney, she hasn't been able to do the same for other families touched by his crimes. Courtney admitted to diluting 72 different medications over nearly a decade. Most were cancer treatment drugs, but others could have been used to treat AIDS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and other diseases.

In all, his criminal activity could have touched 4,200 patients. Courtney's insurance company agreed to pay $35 million to victims, and two pharmaceutical makers paid $71 million in settlements.

Courtney apologized to his victims and his family the day he was sentenced. "From this moment, and for a long time to come, I will be agonizing over what I have done," he said.

"My hope is that ... everyone knows that I apologize. And I'm sorry. For the rest of my life, any good that I can do, any kindness that I can show, I'll do."

Technology was different when Courtney was investigated and convicted. Allen didn't even have an email address then to give the prison bureau to receive updates about Courtney, though the feds have it now.

"I think if this happened today that there would probably be a support group. We would have met other victims and sort of talk about our stories and found some community with it," she said.

"But that's not what happened. So personally we did not keep in touch with any of the people we chatted with when we were in court. So I thought, 'I wonder how many people have kept up with their victim notifications?'

"They told us there's no probation, there's no time for good behavior, there's no parole. ... So we knew on the day he was sentenced that he was getting out May 2, 2027. So why would you keep up with it?"

So when she got two emails about what is about to happen to Courtney, she spread the word.

"At the very least they should have put a press release out, knowing how many victims this man had," she said.

'Not the right way to do this'

Allen's daughter, Kelly Ann Allen, helped get the word out. She posted information about Courtney's release on her Facebook page.

"When my grandmother had ovarian cancer and paid for medical care Robert Courtney exploited her situation and she died," she wrote. "Now he will personally profit from sickness again. The irony is thick."

Kelly Ann, who lives in Northeast Kansas City and works in community development, said saying anything public about Courtney's release puts her in an uncomfortable spot.

"I'm not really a big believer in the (prison) system," she said. "But if we're going to have a lot of people locked up right now in densely populated facilities for low-level crimes, I don't understand why this guy gets out first.

"Everything that he did was for more money than he needed. He already had enough money. And I don't understand why we are so forgiving of that version of greed, but not low-level crimes that are committed in acts of desperation. I don't understand why this guy gets to profit from illness again.

"I'm not a lock-em up kind of person. That's not how I feel about things. But for them to sort of quietly sneak him out of prison under a blanket when he has 4,200 individual victims in this region is not right. That's not the right way to do this."

She's hearing from other victims' relatives now. Few of them could believe that Courtney is now receiving the benefit of compassion. "That's a sad thing to have to confirm for people," she said.

Courtney filed a motion for a sentence reduction in December. It was denied April 3. Then on July 9 he filed another motion asking for compassionate release based on his age, health concerns and the pandemic.

More than 3,100 federal inmates have contracted the coronavirus and 95 have died, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Courtney's motion noted that he has suffered from hypertension, a stroke, three heart attacks, cancer and internal bleeding in prison.

At least two COVID-19 cases have been identified at the federal prison in Littleton.

"The reality is that Courtney's life is in jeopardy every day he is imprisoned while the COVID-19 pandemic rips through the BOP (Bureau of Prisons)," his attorney wrote in a court filing.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted on social media that it was "sad how humane we are only to some," saying Courtney misled thousands of patients and profited, while thousands of others continue to serve sentences for drug offenses.

Bringing it all back

The day Courtney was sentenced, U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith called Courtney's crimes "a shock to the conscience of a nation, the conscience of a community and the conscience of this court."

There was muffled sobbing that day in the courtroom. That emotion is ramping up again as his victims' families hear this latest news, Allen said.

"People are pretty angry," she said. "It brings back memories. I get this email and I open it. And right there, it brings the whole thing back.

"And I wonder about people who are struggling anyway through this whole damn COVID. Why should they have this on top of it? Lost my job. Lost my grandma. And now this guy gets compassionate release and gets to come home."

She recalled the loving care her father, Don Provance, gave her mother when she got sick and how, in the end when they learned that they were dealing with a stacked deck because of what Courtney did, "he just felt kicked in the gut."

Her father died in 2011.

"Really, I'm glad he's not here," Allen said. "Courtney is going to end up within driving distance. He would never have rested."

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