OxyContin maker sued by state prison inmate

BANGOR – A Maine State Prison inmate is suing the maker of OxyContin, alleging that his addiction to the prescription drug after knee surgery led to his subsequent criminal behavior.

Bracy E. Ashby, 38, of Lubec is seeking $100 million in damages and $800,000 in lost wages from Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn. The 31-page, handwritten complaint was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

The complaint also names as defendants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a Maine hospital, independent and chain pharmacies operating in Maine and his physicians.

Purdue Pharma has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit after it is served.

Other lawsuits seeking similar damages that have been filed against the drug manufacturer in Maine and other states have been unsuccessful, according to former U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey, who in private practice has represented Purdue Pharma in Maine.

Ashby is serving a four-year prison sentence for assault, criminal restraint and criminal threatening. He was arrested in April 2003 after a 28-year-old woman told Washington County deputies that when she attempted to leave Ashby’s Lubec home after visiting him, he prevented her from doing so and held her hostage for 10 hours.

The woman said that Ashby repeatedly assaulted her and that she escaped by jumping from a second-story window. She suffered neck and head injuries as a result of the assault, according to law enforcement officials.

The lawsuit claims that Ashby was a successful commercial fisherman until a doctor prescribed OxyContin in 2000. He claims that he became addicted to the painkiller within weeks and that addiction led to his criminal behavior.

The suit was prepared on Ashby’s behalf by Maine State Prison inmate Michael R. Hamlin.