Tale of Woe: The Mark O'Hara Story

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Posted to Legal on Mon Jul 30, 2007 at 09:23:28 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

In August, 2004 Mark O'Hara was picked up by Tampa Airport police after being found with 58 Vicodin pills and a small quantity of marijuana inside the bread truck he owned. He was soon sent to prison for 25 years for drug trafficking and lost everything. The twist in this case? Prosecutors admit he was not selling the drugs and the Vicodin was prescribed to him legally by his physician.

Mr. O'Hara evidently overcame a trip to prison in the late 1980s and early 1990s to build himself a successful baking business, own two condos, and cars. However, all of that slipped away after his 2004 arrest for having the Vicodin and marijuana in his company truck at the airport. Surprisingly, he was not charged with just marijuana possession, but also drug trafficking (Greater than 28G but less than 30 KGs) for the Vicadin which he was prescribed by his doctors for almost two decades after a series of unfortunate car wrecks.

He plead guilty to holding the marijuana -- leading to 67 days in jail. But, at trial on the remaining charges the prosecutors insinuated that he "doctor shopped" or used multiple doctors to get his hands on narcotics. They admitted he did not try to sell the drugs but charged him with trafficking due to the quantity of pills he had on him. However, they also objected when the defense attorneys attempted to get the judge to include in the jury instructions a note stating that having a prescription allows the possession of those drugs. Prosecutors argued that such an instruction would not be allowable because Florida law does not accept a "prescription defense" in drug cases. That instruction never made it to the jury and Mr. O'Hara was convicted, sending him to prison for a mandatory 25 years based on the quantity of pills he had. Later the jury foreman, Frank Brigliadora, stated the outcome would have been different if they would have known it was legal to posses drugs if you had a prescription.

Suddenly Mr. O'Hara's fortunes changed. An appeals court called the Prosecution's reasoning "absurd" and "ridiculous" because it would make all patients criminals once they left the drug store. He was rapidly transported by himself (a luxury usually never given to jail inmates) back to a county facility and appeared in front of the original trial judge the next morning.

All of this transpired so quickly that his lawyers were not even originally informed of the hearing. Mr. O'Hara was quickly released from jail with all of his worldly possessions in hand wearing a paper "clown suit" because he did not even own clothes (everything was sold to pay for the appeal, although once liquidated his assets were then seized as drug fine money). He was left penniless to make the 25 mile trip back to his hometown.

Luckily, Mr. O'Hara was helped by the prison warden, Col. David Parrish, who found him in the parking lot and arranged a taxi for his trip home, gave him $60 and an apology for his treatment.

In the interim attorneys with the Florida State Attorney's Office will review the file and decide whether or not to refile charges.