# Loophole Argument Fails To Get Andover Lawyer Off



## Inspector (Nov 13, 2006)

Judge denies motion to dismiss I-93 hit-run
By LISA REDMOND, Sun Staff
Lowell Sun

LOWELL -- In a blow to the defense, a Superior Court judge has rejected a motion to dismiss charges against an Andover lawyer accused of being on a prescription sleep medication when he struck and killed a man in a highway breakdown lane in Tewksbury.

Defense attorney Robert Sheketoff, representing Ki Yong O, argued at a hearing last month in Lowell Superior Court that charges of motor-vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident should be dismissed against his 35-year-old client because the statute under which he is charged violates the state Constitution.

Sheketoff argued that O was charged with felony motor-vehicle homicide using a federal statute that includes the sleep medicine Ambien. He claimed that because the federal registry is not an agency of Massachusetts, the statute is in violation of the state Constitution.

In a decision late last week, Judge Elizabeth Fahey denied the motion to dismiss, agreeing with prosecutor Cara Krysil that Massachusetts generally accepts federal statutes and that Ambien qualifies as a drug that would cause impairment.

Ambien is a highly addictive sleep medication that carries a warning to use caution when engaging in activities requiring alertness, such as driving or using machinery.

O, a pharmaceutical attorney, has been charged with felony motor-vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage after he allegedly veered into the breakdown lane of Interstate 93 in Tewksbury on the night of June 30, killing 43-year-old Anthony Raucci of Methuen.

Raucci, who was trying to fix a flat tire, was with his wife and 7-year-old son when he was killed.

Prosecutors claim O, who had picked up his prescription for Ambien, was groggy from taking the medication. O allegedly told police he tasted a pill to make sure it wasn't a "knockoff." Three-and-a-half pills were missing from his prescription bottle.

O, a lawyer with the Boston firm of Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, is currently free on $25,000 cash bail. His next court date is Jan. 16.


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2007)

What a tragedy, but what delicious irony.....a pharmaceutical attorney charged with OUI-Drugs. Here's shithead's law firm profile;

http://www.eapdlaw.com/professionals/detail.aspx?attorney=84


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