Opinion ID: 186461
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dr. Morall's Relocation of Her Practice

Text: 11 In November 1998, Dr. Morall was evicted from her own practice in Suite 202 of the Steele Street building for failure to pay rent. At this point, Dr. Morall moved her practice to an office in her home. She testified that she took care of patients from [her] home, but did not see them there, explaining that she maintained established patients, whom she only needed to see at three-month intervals, on weight-loss medication, and that she hoped to move back to another office location within the three-month time period. See Tr. at 351. 12 Dr. Morall testified that after she moved her practice to her home, her drug distributor notified her that controlled substances could only be delivered to her home if it was her DEA registered address. Accordingly, Dr. Morall called DEA to request that her registered location be changed from the Steele Street address to her home address. Dr. Morall spoke with Ms. Betty Garcia, a DEA registration technician. 13 According to a memorandum prepared by Ms. Garcia, Dr. Morall had informed Ms. Garcia that she saw patients at her home and that she had a safe there to store controlled substances. Dr. Morall disputes this account of her November 12, 1998 phone conversation with Ms. Garcia. She testified that she did not tell Ms. Garcia that she was seeing patients at her home: I think I said I was taking care of patients in my home. Tr. at 354. She also attested to telling Ms. Garcia that she had a safe place to store controlled substances, rather than a safe. Dr. Morall maintained that I can't imagine my calling up and saying I want the meds transferred, by the way, I have a safe. There would be no reason ... [because] there was no requirement for a safe, and there was never a safe in the prior places where she had worked, including her practice at Suite 202 or at the Holland clinic. Id. On November 12, 1998, Dr. Morall's DEA registration was modified to reflect her home address. The request to have controlled substances delivered to her home triggered a DEA investigation. 14 Following the modification of her DEA registration to her home address, Dr. Morall ordered a shipment of 3,000 dosage units of phentermine and 200 dosage units of Meridia to that address.