Pham trial to go forward

Judge finds sufficient probable cause to try case against podiatrist

By TERESA RESSEL
Daily Journal Staff Writer

PARK HILLS — A St. Louis podiatrist will have to go to trial for allegations he provided prescription pills in exchange for sex.

On Tuesday afternoon after a preliminary hearing, Associate Circuit Court Judge Thomas L. Ray ruled that there was sufficient probable cause for the case against Dr. Dave Dai Quang Pham to be bound over to circuit court. Dr. Pham is charged with felony distribution of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and misdemeanor patronizing prostitution.

Dr. Pham was ordered to appear before Circuit Court Judge Sandy Martinez during her law day on Dec. 4.

Prosecuting Attorney Wendy Wexler Horn called two witnesses — Farmington Narcotics Investigator Jason Stacy and the Farmington woman who went to police with concerns about Dr. Pham.

During the preliminary hearing, the Farmington woman testified she met Dr. Pham at a local nursing home in April or May of 2008 and they exchanged phone numbers. She said she gave him her work cell phone number and he immediately began calling and texting her, wanting to pursue a relationship with her. She said he talked a lot about sex.

She said after she was in an accident in June of 2008, he sent her a prescription for morphine. She said she didn’t ask for it, he offered it.

She said she only took a couple pills because they made her sick. She said her son got into her purse, took some pills and died of an overdose.

Shortly after her son’s death, she went to Farmington Police Department to voice concerns that a doctor she barely knew and was not seeing as a patient was offering to send her prescriptions.

She said she had told Dr. Pham to stop calling her because they could never have a relationship. She said he would offer to send her prescriptions in exchange for sex or pictures of her breast.

The police department began the investigation in January.

The woman said in March, Dr. Pham mailed her a prescription for Percocet and in exchange she was to meet him at a Bonne Terre motel to have sex. She said she gave the package to police without opening it.

In conversations before Dr. Pham arrived at the motel, she said she asked him to bring Xanax and Viagra with him.

The woman said she never had sex with Dr. Pham and it was police who met him at the motel.

Stacy said Dr. Pham was arrested when he attempted to check in and obtain the woman’s room key. He said a police officer searched him and found an unlabeled pill bottle containing Xanax, Viagra and Ibuprofen pills.

Police searched Dr. Pham’s vehicle and confiscated his cell phone for evidence.

Stacy said he has the text messages exchanged between the two since November of 2008. He also recorded some phone calls of the woman setting up the meeting at the motel.

Stacy said after Dr. Pham was arrested, the doctor told him he wrote two prescriptions to the woman and the woman was not his patient.

He said Dr. Pham said he went to the motel with the intentions of having sex with the woman.

When asked by the doctor’s attorney, Stacy said the woman was not paid to be an informant. He said he did not offer her any suggestions of how to “entice” Dr. Pham.

Before the preliminary hearing began, Dr. Pham’s attorney, Bradley Dede of Clayton, unsuccessfully argued that the charge of distribution of a controlled substance against his client was unconstitutional and didn’t fit the case.

In other cases before Judge Ray, Jackie Lynn Baldwin II, 30, of Farmington, waived arraignment to charges that the prosecutor refiled. After the St. Francois County Jail erroneously released him from jail, the prosecutor refiled charges of second-degree assault, second-degree domestic assault and violation of an order of protection. Those charges had been dismissed as part of a plea agreement. Baldwin is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20 for first-degree domestic assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Joshua Reissing, 28, of Farmington, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was bound over on a felony escape from confinement charge. According to police, he escaped from bailiffs after being arrested at the St. Francois County Courthouse.

Teresa Ressel is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 179 or at tressel@dailyjournalonline.com.

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