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U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose recently ruled that the expert testimony of Dr. Brian Lee Springer would not be excluded from what could be a five-week trial.
Springer is employed by Wright State University, the Boonshoft School of Medicine and the Dept. of Emergency Medicine.
According to Rose’s ruling, federal prosecutors plan to have Springer testify about his experience as an emergency room physician, the nature of natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic opiods like heroin and fenatanyl and the nature of Narcan.
In a Nov. 1, hearing, a Dayton police detective testified about the investigation of five overdoses and two deaths that happened Memorial Day weekend in 2015, according to court records.
Rose’s ruling said the detective’s investigation concluded that the five people who overdosed had purchased drugs from Spiva and/or McBeath and that all were revived after receiving nalaxone.
Defense attorneys argued that Springer did not examine or treat the victims so his testimony should be excluded.
Rose quoted federal rules of evidence that determine expert witnesses may give an opinion or “give a dissertation or exposition of scientific or other principles relevant to the case, leaving the trier of fact to apply them to the facts.”
McBeath — who goes by aliases such as “Fat Boy” and “Biggin” — and Spiva — aka “B” and “Snake” — are accused of running a drug distribution operation that allegedly operated from June 2014 to May 2015 at Dayton properties on East Fifth Street, South Torrence Street and South Horton Street.
The case stems from the May 26, 2015 overdose deaths of Paul McElfresh, 33, and Jason Robinson, 38. Other people were alleged to have overdosed but survived in connection to the same "toe-tag" heroin mentioned by Montgomery County Coroner's Office officials.
The case grew out of the Heroin Eradication Apprehension Team (HEAT) formed in May 2015 that includes Dayton police Chief Richard Biehl and Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer.
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