Three of the four people accused in the Mississippi “pill mill” case were granted bail, while the federal judge delayed his decision on the husband, principal defendant and continued his hearing to the afternoon, reports the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald here.
Dr. Victoria Van (pictured with her family), pharmacist Nick Tran next door and the medical office’s manager Richard Trieu were granted bail at $100,000. The prosecution did not object to bail for these three people.
It did, however, argue against bail for the principal defendant, Dr. Thomas Trieu who is Dr. Van’s husband and Richard’s brother.
During the bail hearing, the government also claims that it will seek in excess of 100 additional counts against Dr. Trieu in a superseding indictment — probably as a result of reviewing the office files seized during the arrest.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. scheduled an afternoon hearing to hear further arguments on Dr. Trieu’s bail. Dr. Trieu is represented by attorney Wayne Gross from Orange County. A former federal prosecutor, Gross once was head of the Southern Division office of the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, basically in charge of all federal prosecutions in Orange and Riverside counties (that was before Riverside became the Eastern Division).
The three people granted bail have spent 72 straight days in jail since their arrest in May.
More than a dozen people showed up at the bail hearing in support of the accused. Among them was Dr. Thomas Stebbins, a global ambassador for Evangelism Explosion International, a ministry led by the renowned evangelical Dr. James Kennedy.
According to the Sun Herald, Stebbins is among those who were willing to testify on Dr. Trieu’s behalf. Apparently Stebbins has known the doctors for several years, dating back to Van’s work with Christian ministry projects at impoverished areas of the nation and overseas.
Read the Bolsavik’s previous entries on this case here, here, here.
