October 29 , 2005

BOY’S FAMILY SEEKS SOURCE OF DRUGS

By Brian McCready, New Haven Register, Milford Bureau Chief
MILFORD — The attorney for the family of a Stratford teen who died of an OxyContin overdose in June said Friday his clients plan to file a civil lawsuit against a doctor that he claims is ultimately responsible for overprescribing the drug.

Michael Diedrickson, 15, died June 21 of an OxyContin overdose, two days after attending a sleepover at a former city family’s home on Oronoque Road, the attorney said.

Police Thursday charged an unidentified 15-year-old Stratford boy with negligent homicide, alleging he gave Michael the OxyContin.

Thomas Galvin Cotter of Stratford, the attorney for Michael’s parents, Neil and Janice Ricco Diedrickson, alleged the OxyContin that killed Michael was put in a soda the teen drank. He died at Yale-New Haven Hospital two days later.

Cotter and co-counsel Michael Stratton of New Haven claim Michael unknowingly ingested the OxyContin.

Stratton said, "He was a good, clean kid. He had never done drugs."

While police did not say how the OxyContin was obtained, Cotter and Stratton claim the suspect got it from a person to whom it was legally prescribed.

Cotter said the 15-year-old charged in the case had previously lived in Stratford, moved to Milford earlier this year, then moved back to Stratford after Michael’s death. Cotter claimed the boy is now under house arrest, and is wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet. Stratton said he and Cotter plan to sue the boy’s family, the doctor who prescribed the OxyContin and the pharmaceutical company that makes the popular painkiller.

Cotter said it’s uncertain how many pills Michael ingested, but said if the pills were ground up, it would not take many to become a lethal cocktail.

An expert on narcotics, Thomas Janette, director of community affairs for the Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association, has said crushing and ingesting the OxyContin pills can result in the shutdown of a person’s respiratory system.

Stratton said the attorneys plan to file a "bill of discovery" in Superior Court in Bridgeport within a week to compel disclosure of the identity of the doctor who prescribed the OxyContin and the identity of the pharmacy where it was purchased.

"The Diedrickson family is distraught over Michael’s death and while they are heartened by the prosecutor’s recent arrest of the (suspect), they feel that there is a broader responsibility for this tragedy," said Cotter.

Copyright 2005, New Haven Register