Hundreds frustrated over potential release of disgraced KC pharmacist Robert Courtney
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of Missouri families are furious over news regarding a disgraced Kansas City pharmacist, and his potential release from prison.
Robert Courtney, now 71, is due to be sent to a halfway house, after a 2002 conviction of selling diluted cancer medicines.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows his original sentence would have kept him locked up until May 2026. However, he’s scheduled to be sent to a Springfield, Missouri halfway house on June 20.
“What Robert Courtney did was horrific,” Grant Davis, a Kansas City attorney who represented more than 100 families tied to this case, said on Thursday.
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Davis said his clients’ relatives suffered from cancer, and many sought chemotherapy, which was administered by Courtney. However, the medicines were found to be weakened and ineffective.
Many of those patients fought ovarian cancer, with a slim chance of survival, but hopes that the chemotherapy would be the answer.
Davis said he recalls Courtney’s original deposition at a prison in Leavenworth, where Courtney repeatedly leaned on his Fifth Amendment right.
“(His clients) just wonder how in the world he could be let out of prison after everything he’s done and all the families he’s hurt. We will never know, because he diluted this chemotherapy, how many people he killed,” Davis said.
During the pandemic, a previous attempt to send Courtney to a halfway house failed. U.S. Congressman Sam Graves (R-Missouri) spoke out against it.
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“What Robert Courtney did was unconscionable. He diluted the cancer medication of 4,200 patients, just to make a quick buck. He needs to serve the rest of his term in prison, not a halfway house,” Rep. Graves said on Thursday via a written statement sent to FOX4.
Davis also pointed out that civil attorneys can’t affect the criminal system. He’s heard some victims families would like Missouri prosecutors to pursue murder charges against Courtney. There is no statute of limitations in those cases in this state.
