Doctor files for change of venue in drug case

TEXARKANA — A doctor accused of running a pill mill is asking his federal criminal trial be held in Hot Springs because of pretrial publicity.

Lonnie Joseph Parker, 55, is accused in a nine-count indictment pending in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas of over-prescribing drugs of abuse including opioids, benzodiazepines and promethazine-containing cough syrup. He has pleaded innocent to all counts and is free on an unsecured appearance bond.

Parker’s lawyers, John Wesley Hall and Jeffery Rosenzweig of Little Rock, filed a motion last week seeking a change of venue in the case from Texarkana to Little Rock. The motion complains of “significant negative publicity” in the media markets serving Texarkana and El Dorado and argues that Parker can’t get a fair trial in Texarkana.

The motion urges the court to move the trial to Hot Springs, which the motion claims is in the “Little Rock media market and therefore not subject to anywhere near the extent of negative publicity,” the motion states.

The motion asks that a hearing be scheduled to address the motion should the government oppose a change of venue. The motion states that “upon information and belief, the government may not contest transfer to the Hot Springs Division.”

Parker had to surrender his passport, is restricted in his travel and cannot practice medicine or write prescriptions as conditions of his pretrial release.

A statement issued at the time of Parker’s arrest by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Western District of Arkansas last year notes an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration into Parker began in 2018 after complaints from law enforcement officials that included the possible overdose death of a patient.

The case is scheduled for jury selection in January in Texarkana’s downtown federal building before U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey.