"These were poor people who couldn't resist . . . the temptation to get more pills than they need and sell them," said Hallinan, describing one of Hurwitz's patients who later agreed to cooperate with investigators and wore a wire to tape their conversations.
Prosecutors contend that a conversation includes Hurwitz suggesting that his patient get an unnecessary MRI to falsely support his heavy prescriptions. Prosecutors say the patient also discloses his arrest for possession of cocaine. Still, they said, Hurwitz prescribed the patient 300 tablets of OxyContin.
Charges against William E. Hurwitz include drug trafficking and health care fraud.
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"That tape recording provides a window into the real Dr. Hurwitz," Lytle told the jury. "As a doctor, he thought he could hide behind the pain he treated."
Prosecutors allege that Hurwitz made large profits by charging an initiation fee of $1,000 for each patient and then $250 a month for maintenance. They said Hurwitz had about 470 patients in his clinic over the last five years, resulting in millions of dollars in profit.
Several of those patients died and others overdosed, prosecutors said yesterday, telling the jury they can link the incidents to Hurwitz's overzealous dosages.
Several of Hurwitz's friends and former patients were in the courtroom yesterday to lend support.
Siobhan Reynolds is executive director of the Pain Relief Network. Her former husband suffers from a congenital tissue disorder that she said has left him with intractable pain. He was a patient of Hurwitz's until the practice was closed.
"He saved my husband's life for sure," said Reynolds, adding that Hurwitz was "brave enough" to give her husband the care and the medication he needed -- extraordinarily high doses of OxyContin, Dilaudid and Fentanyl -- when other doctors were afraid to act.
"Other doctors who might have been persuaded to get involved see this as a precautionary tale," she said, referring to the trial. "Who wants this?"
