Dr. Jeanne Esther Germeil
DEA
Before her scheduled sentencing in federal court for distributing a controlled substance, North Miami Beach doctor Jeanne Germeil declared in an email to the Miami Herald, “I will not obey an unjust and racist system!”
And, Friday, Germeil backed up that declaration — she didn’t show up for her sentencing.
That triggered an order from Judge Ursula Ungaro that read, “The defendant is hereby transferred to the Clerk’s suspended/fugitive file until such time as the fugitive(s) are apprehended.”
One of Germeil’s federal public defenders, Daniel Ecarius, would only say via email Tuesday that she had not appeared since Ungaro declared her a fugitive.
Germeil, 55, has been out of jail since posting $250,000 bond six days after her Sept. 21, 2018, indictment on 16 counts of distributing a controlled substance. She had to give up her passport and could travel without special permission only to the U.S. District Court’s Southern and Middle Districts of Florida.
Jurors found Germeil guilty on 11 counts in February after prosecutors presented evidence she, among other actions, prescribed opioid pain medications at a rate of 687.95 prescriptions a month, a rate too high for actual diagnosis.
Her April 10 email to the Miami Herald declared her prosecution and conviction a product of misogyny, racism and a jury trial rigged against her defense team.
It ended with: “I am through playing it fair while the opposing party had been cheating left and right without consequences. I know they will label me and harass my daughter as they are already doing. However that justice system is rigged against people like me. Colored, Haitian, successful female physician. Enough is enough! They will get my corpse. I will not obey an unjust and racist system!”
According to the Florida Department of Health, Germeil had been in practice since 1995 and licensed in Florida since 2007. The Department of Health dropped an emergency suspension order on her license last week because of the federal court conviction.
In 2017, she paid a total of $12,895 and had to complete a medical records course after a case that was a microcosm of her federal case, prescribing opioids with inadequate examination.
Germeil’s address with the Florida Department of Health, which dropped an emergency suspension order on her license last week, is in Aventura. Germeil Medical, the clinic where she prescribed the opioids, was in North Miami Beach.
In court documents, Germeil claimed a Naples home as her main residence. The terms of her home confinement required only she be at her Naples home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.
