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Updated: 10:39 a.m, Friday, Dec. 3, 2021
A Franklin County judge on Friday denied a request from former Mount Carmel doctor William Husel to dismiss the 25-count murder indictment against him. The ruling means the case is on schedule to go to trial in February.
The crux of Husel’s legal challenge was based on the assertion that former Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien intentionally kept evidence from a grand jury as he pushed them to indict Husel for ordering what O’Brien called unjustifiable doses of the painkiller fentanyl.
In all of the 25 deaths for which Husel was indicted, he ordered nurses to administer doses of fentanyl between 500 and 2,000 micrograms. But in a 2020 hearing, Husel’s attorney Jose Baez pointed to another patient who received 2,500 micrograms of the painkiller and lived for another 10 days. That death was not part of the case brought by prosecutors.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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