FORT PIERCE — A former Port St. Lucie doctor will stand trial for the third time in March on charges she ran a “pill mill” from her office that ended with six of her former patients overdosing on oxycodone and other potent painkillers.

An appeals court in May overturned Asuncion Luyao’s 2006 convictions for manslaughter, drug trafficking and racketeering, ruling jurors were tainted by irrelevant testimony about the doctor’s gambling habit.

Judge Larry Schack set the new trial date for March 23.

Schack this afternoon also considered lowering bond for Luyao, who the court at the time granted Luyao a bond of $35,000 for each of her seven convictions.

Her new attorney, John Flannery of Virginia, told Judge Larry Schack the most Luyao and her family could afford was a total of $20,000.

“This is a woman who has the heart of a healer, and I believe the court over time will see that,” Flannery said of Luyao.

Flannery said Luyao’s family has considered having a fund-raiser to raise her bail money.

Assistant State Attorney Erin Kirkwood said that although Luyao returned for every court appearance between 2002 and her conviction in 2006, the stakes were much higher this time.

“Back then, there was still a chance she could walk out. What she knows now is that they (a jury) can convict her.”

Prosecutors in 2002 charged Luyao with six counts of manslaughter in the overdose deaths of six of her former patients.

Her first trial ended in a hung jury. In the second, the jury acquitted Luyao on five of the manslaughter counts, convicting her only in the March 2001 death of Julia Hartsfield, who had been Luyao’s patient since 1996.
By DAPHNE DURET
daphne_duret@pbpost.com

Tags: Asuncion Luyao, oxycodone

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