Two more Tayloe / Hospital Pharmacy cases dismissed. Only one remains active. | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

Prosecutors won't say why the cases were dismissed after all this time.

    The Government's case in the Tayloe Pharmacy bust crumbled further Wednesday (3-21-13) when all charges were dismissed against two more of the defendants in the case. Arron Jones and Kevin Dail Owens walked out of court as free men with a huge load lifted from them.

    Previously, Lori Melton and Anna Moore had also had their charges dismissed. That leaves only two of the original six defendants not dismissed. Justin Mixon pled guilty in what some think was a deal he cut to testify for the Government. The only other remaining defendant is Amanda Bunch, who is a Nurse Practitioner who, unlike the others, was charged with writing prescriptions that the others used. Bunch is still practicing with a currently active license after the State Nursing Board reviewed the evidence against her and therefore it is assumed the charges against here will also ultimately be dropped. The U. S. Attorney handling the case has not returned calls from the Observer.

    The orders dismissing charges against all four (Melton, Moore, Jones and Owens) all say the same thing; that the charges were being dropped by the Government "...in light of newly obtained information."

    However, reliable sources in a position to know, tell us that no new evidence, other than what was in the file at the original indictment stage, has come "to light." The judge handling the cases granted permission to the Government to drop the cases without entering any explanation for what "new information" had become available. Because of experiences we have had reporting on similar cases and court action, we are suspicious that the "new information" was evidence that was either overlooked by prosecutors originally or they withheld exculpatory evidence and that the reason the dismissals were affected is to shield inappropriate prosecutorial behavior. We are investigating that possibility and we are extremely suspicious because of the obvious lack of transparency exhibited by the prosecutors involved in various stages of the case. We know there is an extraordinary cover-up going on. At this point we just don't know why. More on this later.

    There are also rampant rumors that for some reason, decision-makers did not want the case to go to trial because of what might be exposed in a trial. The rumors are that other highly placed officials, including potential "unindicted co-conspirators" would have been called to testify under oath and that this may be a reason the cases were dismissed. We just don't know. And we/the public do/does not know because the prosecutors will not disclose why they dropped the cases after all this time and money being spent on both sides. It's the ole "what did they know, and when did they know it?"

    We will be reporting at a future date the toll the case has taken on the defendants and their families. None of them will take to us and that is understandable until all of the cases have been settled and none are in jeopardy. But we will say now that it is a distressing situation, given the fact that they have been put through what they have and all it ended up with was dismissal without any explanation.

    If you're not familiar with the background in the case you can review earlier articles on the case here in the Observer:

    4-19-12 article on initial arrests.

    1-24-13 article on the first dismissals.