Opiate for the Mrs.

Gosinski's assertion that Cindy McCain was addicted to painkillers required corroboration, some kind of official documentation, and when Dowd persuaded County Attorney Richard Romley to launch his extortion investigation, Dowd unwittingly provided it.

There it was. On the record. In John Dowd's own words.
What was in it for Romley? To Romley, the extortion investigation must have appeared to be a no-lose situation. He could take comfort in the knowledge that the DEA and the U.S. Attorney were already probing drug acquisition and handling at AVMT. The feds normally refer cases of prescription fraud to state courts, but federal sources say that because of the possibility that ill-gotten drugs had been transported out of the country, the DEA and U.S. Attorney retained jurisdiction.

That left Romley free to go after Gosinski without much fear of damaging the McCains. On May 12, Romley's office launched its extortion probe.

An edited version of the investigative report was released August 22, jarred loose by a New Times public records request. Because the McCain camp was informed that the report was to be released, there was time to set up Cindy McCain's confessions before the agreeable journalists, none of whom was aware that the report was to be released.

Barnett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney, says the office has prosecuted an average of 14 extortion charges each year since 1988. He says the Gosinski investigation is "substantially complete," but that no decision has been made on whether Gosinski will be prosecuted.

Lotstein also says it is common to provide complainants--in this case, Dowd, et al.--with opportunities to edit investigative reports before they are made public. Lotstein says Dowd and company were not shown the report, "but they did assert their privacy interests with regard to certain privacy issues."

Asked repeatedly to cite another example where complainants had been allowed to such access, Lotstein says, "I don't have a specific case, but I can tell you that it's the normal procedure."

As a sometimes-special prosecutor is wont to do, John Dowd left his mark on the county attorney's investigation. About one-fourth of the 200-plus pages in the report consists of Dowd submissions, including a 26-page diatribe dated June 14 that reads like an insider's summary of the investigation to that point.

Dowd met with the investigators on at least one occasion, June 27. And the phone lines between Dowd's D.C. office and the County Attorney's Office apparently were buzzing.

The report indicates that Dowd landed some blows, and took some as well. Portions of it seem to buttress Dowd's claim that Tom Gosinski was attempting "a shakedown." Gosinski's colleagues at AVMT heard him say he would be willing to use what he knew about Cindy McCain to enrich himself.

AVMT employee Tracy Orrick told investigators Gosinski "would make comments like, 'I wonder how much Cindy's father would pay to keep this quiet,' referring to gossip around the office."

Kathy Walker--who is identified in the report as being "employed by Hensley & Company as Cindy McCain's Administrative Assistant and Director of Operations" of AVMT--told investigators that Gosinski told her in November 1992 that "I'm going to get her [McCain], I'm going to blackmail her if she ever fires me."

Gosinski denies ever threatening to blackmail McCain, and says he's saddened by Orrick's and Walker's statements. Gosinski claims that Walker and Orrick often joined in speculation about their job security, based on their observations of Cindy McCain.

"I truly don't understand that," he says. "I think it's noteworthy, though, that Kathy Walker is still employed by Mrs. McCain, as is Tracy [Orrick], and that Kathy Walker, in fact, picked up prescriptions written in [Walker's] name by a doctor and had them filled even though she had no need for them."
Indeed, both Orrick and Walker told investigators that they became aware that prescriptions for controlled substances were being written in their names, and Dr. John Max Johnson, AVMT's medical director, admitted writing prescriptions in the names of Orrick, Walker and Gosinski.

Orrick told investigators that when Gosinski learned that prescriptions had been written in Orrick's and Walker's names, he declared, "They'd better not be doing that in my name."

Some prescriptions were for quantities of 400 and 500 pills. Sometimes, Cindy McCain would go to Johnson's home to pick up the prescription. Sometimes, she would send an underling, Johnson said.

Johnson told investigators that he never dispensed any painkillers during overseas missions, and that Cindy McCain carried the drugs in her personal luggage. Gosinski says he knew of no doctors who prescribed them on an overseas mission. Dr. Dennis Everton, however, tells New Times that on his sole AVMT mission--to Kuwait in 1991--he did prescribe pain medication.