Christensen asks for trial delay

By Michael Howell

Dr. Chris Christensen, the Florence area doctor who is facing 400 felony counts, including two counts of homicide, has asked District Court Judge Jeffrey Langton in a motion filed pro se on May 23, to delay his trial for a year. The trial is scheduled to take place on October 20, 2016 and Christensen is asking for a six-month stay of the current proceedings until January 2017 to give him time to get legal representation and an extension of the date for trial to October 2017 to give his legal team time to prepare a case. He also asked the Court to order the return of the $2,000 and computer hard drives that were taken from his office during a law enforcement raid in April of 2014 and for the exoneration of the $200,000 bond posted as a requirement for his release pending trial.
Responding for the state, Ravalli County Deputy Attorney Thorin Geist argued that Christensen has already delayed enough and could have obtained counsel already, if that was his aim. Citing case history, he argues that by his actions to date, Christensen has “waived by conduct” his right to an attorney and has not shown cause as to why the public’s right to a speedy trial should be waived. He proposes that the trial date remain as set and that Christensen be ordered to appear and represent himself pro se unless he has procured legal counsel by that time.
In his motion to stay the proceedings, Christensen does not directly address any of the state’s three pre-trial motions to date or the underlying criminal charges against him. He simply argues that he needs an attorney to respond to the motions and is having trouble getting one to represent him, the main problem being the cost.
Christensen was initially granted an attorney from the Office of Public Defenders but that decision was rescinded by Judge Langton, who found Christensen was not financially “indigent” and thus did not qualify for a public defender.
Responding to a request for an interview conveyed through a third party, a Bitterroot Star reporter met with Christensen last week. Christensen said he has been looking for competent representation and so far the price tag has ranged from $150,000 to $500,000 in retainer fees alone. He said the estimated cost of the trial, including 400 felony counts and two counts of homicide, ranges from $500,000 to $1 million.
Christensen said that at this time he and his wife have no significant assets that could be used to fund a defense. He said he had no income and lived on Social Security. He said they have substantial debt and are in the process of filing for bankruptcy. He attributed most of his current money problems to the fact that he was forced out of business in April of 2014, almost a year before any charges were actually filed against him. He said his practice effectively ended in 2014 when sheriff’s deputies confiscated his computer hard drives. He said his license to practice medicine in Montana, which he has possessed since 1970, was suspended following a complaint by the Sheriff’s Department to the Board of Medical Examiners, but it was then reinstated under stipulations. Then it was suspended again once the Sheriff’s Office formally filed charges against him.
Christensen said that if he could afford an attorney and the other costs involved in mounting a defense against such an enormous number of charges he would be glad to be in the courtroom because that’s the only avenue to establish his innocence.
He said that he has faced undeserved charges before concerning similar types of allegations including one death in Idaho. He said in that case, even though he was still practicing at the time with an income, a federal judge determined that he qualified for a public defender and he was granted one. He said with competent representation, the homicide counts were thrown out and he was acquitted on multiple other counts, with a hung jury on the remaining counts. At a second trial he was acquitted of those charges.
Christensen said that he believes that the medical profession has gone through a learning process over the use of opioids and learned the difference between someone becoming “dependent” on painkillers and someone becoming “addictive.” He said the “over aggressive” attempts by law enforcement to hold doctors responsible for the rising problem of opioid drug abuse was misplaced. He said recent evidence suggests that much of the “so-called” pharmaceuticals that are being abused are not really being manufactured by legitimate pharmaceutical companies nor prescribed by doctors.
“It’s easy to lay the blame for an unacceptable death rate due to opioid abuse, but the attempts to blame the medical profession for the problem is an attempt to pass the buck,” said Christensen.
Christensen said that he was proud of his 40 years of practice and believes he did a lot of good, especially after coming to Montana in 2005 and opening his “cash only” services to the public.
“I am humble and proud that my practice in Victor demonstrated that we can reduce the cost involved in providing health care services by more than half by dealing directly with the patient and not through the insurance companies and the federal government,” said Christensen. He said the costs of outpatient care can be reduced by 50 to 60 percent without compromising the quality of the care.
In fact, quality of care is what’s being lost in the corporatized medical setting, according to Christensen. Patient privacy and confidentiality is also threatened when a third party gets all that information, he said.
If convicted, Christensen could receive 388 life terms in prison, plus 135 years and a $20 million fine. He calls it a “death sentence.”
“The state concedes he will more likely than not die in prison if he is convicted,” wrote Geist in his reply. “The fact that the defendant has elected to play Russian Roulette by not taking the simple step of retaining counsel does not constitute good cause.”
Geist argues that in the previous five months Christensen had only interviewed three lawyers, had not yet filed for bankruptcy and had not re-applied to the Office of Public Defenders as he had been urged by the judge to do.
“Lack of diligence does not constitute good cause,” according to Geist.
Geist said that the money that was confiscated was drug proceeds to be used at trial. He said the state had offered to make copies of the confiscated hard drives if the defendant had a server that could handle it. Regarding exonerating the bond, Geist argues against it. He states that the number of life terms involved in the case is a good incentive to run and that Christensen did not “merit the court’s trust,” citing misrepresentations made to the court about the state’s “consent” to previous time extension requests for which the court admonished him, and the fact that he had not filed a single brief in the case in response to the state’s pre-trial motions.