The Office of Attorney Regulation is an independent office of the Colorado Supreme Court, whose building is seen here in 2015. (The Denver Post)
A Golden attorney and expert in medical ethics has agreed to hand over her law license for two years after helping a doctor friend acquire Ambien and lying to detectives about it.
Susan Fox, a sole practitioner and lawyer here since 1987, will lose her license on Dec. 11 under the terms of an agreement between Fox and state disciplinary authorities.
In addition to her law degree, Fox has a master’s in bioethics, a subject she has taught at Regis University, according to an online biography. Her legal practice focuses on end-of-life planning and other patient-advocacy matters, such as the use of experimental drugs.
In 2022, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigated an emergency room doctor in Denver for overprescribing Ambien to friends, who would then pick up the sleep drugs and give them to the doctor, according to the agreement this month between Fox and the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation, which investigates wrongdoing by lawyers in this state.
“I thought that I knew her well — I do know her well, and I respect her — but what I didn’t know is that she had a need for sleeping medications,” Fox recalled of her friend during an interview Wednesday. “Because she was a physician and because you can’t prescribe things for yourself, I didn’t give it a second thought when she asked me to pick up some meds for her. She was an emergency doc working 24-hour shifts during COVID.”
Detectives found that Fox picked up prescribed Ambien seven times in 2021, left the drugs for the doctor in Fox’s garage, and was reimbursed by her friend. Detectives were aided in their investigation by Fox’s use of her King Soopers card when picking up prescriptions.
When Tom Clemen, a DEA agent, asked Fox about that the next year, the lawyer admitted only to knowing the doctor. She repeatedly denied, during three calls over four months, to helping her acquire Ambien and said she didn’t know how her King Soopers card was used.
Fox then “contacted the doctor after every phone call she had with Special Agent Clemen and told the doctor about the conversations she had,” according to this month’s agreement.
“I told the DEA investigator that I would meet with him if my client, who was the subject of the investigation, was present because I had no idea that there was even a criminal issue with her,” Fox told BusinessDen this week.
“I was probably overly hostile or uncooperative with the federal investigation, but I was a public federal defender intern for years,” she said in explaining her actions.
The doctor, who is not named in the agreement, pleaded guilty to one count of drug possession in early 2023 and was sentenced to probation. She also lost her medical license.
Now it is her friend whose license will be lost. In its agreement with Fox, the Office of Attorney Regulation noted that it is a felony to lie to federal detectives, as she did. But it stopped short of recommending disbarment due to Fox’s lack of a disciplinary history, her remorse at what she had done, and her otherwise good reputation in legal and medical communities.
Disciplinary Judge Bryon Large concurred and suspended her license for two years.
“I think it’s excessive,” Fox said. “This had nothing to do with legal work. Frankly, I think it’s a vendetta by the Justice Department because they were trying to get to a ring of doctors who really were under a lot of stress and may have been abusing drugs.”
“But I don’t consider myself a victim, I don’t consider myself a martyr,” she adds. “I was maybe stupid to not read labels or to not act differently.”
Fox said that she now hopes to do pro bono or nonprofit work that advances social justice and doesn’t require her to give legal advice, which she will soon be barred from doing.
“I think we have a lot of serious problems in this country,” the attorney explained on Wednesday, “and I would like to try to work on some of them.”
The Office of Attorney Regulation is an independent office of the Colorado Supreme Court, whose building is seen here in 2015. (The Denver Post)
A Golden attorney and expert in medical ethics has agreed to hand over her law license for two years after helping a doctor friend acquire Ambien and lying to detectives about it.
Susan Fox, a sole practitioner and lawyer here since 1987, will lose her license on Dec. 11 under the terms of an agreement between Fox and state disciplinary authorities.
In addition to her law degree, Fox has a master’s in bioethics, a subject she has taught at Regis University, according to an online biography. Her legal practice focuses on end-of-life planning and other patient-advocacy matters, such as the use of experimental drugs.
In 2022, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigated an emergency room doctor in Denver for overprescribing Ambien to friends, who would then pick up the sleep drugs and give them to the doctor, according to the agreement this month between Fox and the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation, which investigates wrongdoing by lawyers in this state.
“I thought that I knew her well — I do know her well, and I respect her — but what I didn’t know is that she had a need for sleeping medications,” Fox recalled of her friend during an interview Wednesday. “Because she was a physician and because you can’t prescribe things for yourself, I didn’t give it a second thought when she asked me to pick up some meds for her. She was an emergency doc working 24-hour shifts during COVID.”
Detectives found that Fox picked up prescribed Ambien seven times in 2021, left the drugs for the doctor in Fox’s garage, and was reimbursed by her friend. Detectives were aided in their investigation by Fox’s use of her King Soopers card when picking up prescriptions.
When Tom Clemen, a DEA agent, asked Fox about that the next year, the lawyer admitted only to knowing the doctor. She repeatedly denied, during three calls over four months, to helping her acquire Ambien and said she didn’t know how her King Soopers card was used.
Fox then “contacted the doctor after every phone call she had with Special Agent Clemen and told the doctor about the conversations she had,” according to this month’s agreement.
“I told the DEA investigator that I would meet with him if my client, who was the subject of the investigation, was present because I had no idea that there was even a criminal issue with her,” Fox told BusinessDen this week.
“I was probably overly hostile or uncooperative with the federal investigation, but I was a public federal defender intern for years,” she said in explaining her actions.
The doctor, who is not named in the agreement, pleaded guilty to one count of drug possession in early 2023 and was sentenced to probation. She also lost her medical license.
Now it is her friend whose license will be lost. In its agreement with Fox, the Office of Attorney Regulation noted that it is a felony to lie to federal detectives, as she did. But it stopped short of recommending disbarment due to Fox’s lack of a disciplinary history, her remorse at what she had done, and her otherwise good reputation in legal and medical communities.
Disciplinary Judge Bryon Large concurred and suspended her license for two years.
“I think it’s excessive,” Fox said. “This had nothing to do with legal work. Frankly, I think it’s a vendetta by the Justice Department because they were trying to get to a ring of doctors who really were under a lot of stress and may have been abusing drugs.”
“But I don’t consider myself a victim, I don’t consider myself a martyr,” she adds. “I was maybe stupid to not read labels or to not act differently.”
Fox said that she now hopes to do pro bono or nonprofit work that advances social justice and doesn’t require her to give legal advice, which she will soon be barred from doing.
“I think we have a lot of serious problems in this country,” the attorney explained on Wednesday, “and I would like to try to work on some of them.”
