The trial for 73-year-old Thomas Keller, a Santa Rosa neurosurgeon, concluded on Friday, March 20. The doctor was acquitted for four of the nine charges that he was facing. The acquittal included the second-degree murder charges of two patients and the reckless prescribing of medications to another one of his patients.
The verdict on the other five charges against him came back with a hung jury. This includes the elder abuse charge of one of the patients he was treating who died from respiratory issues and was found to have high levels of prescription medication in her system.
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It will be up to the prosecutors if they will set a new trial for the five counts that the jury was hung on. Based on records online, Keller has another court date set for March 30.
When the preliminary hearings began back in September of 2019, the prosecution came to the courtroom prepared with six large binders full of information regarding patient information showing Keller’s negligence.
Since his initial arrest in August, Keller has been kept in the Sonoma County Jail with a reported $12 million bond.
Keller will be in a federal courtroom in June, where he will be put on trial for other charges he has incurred on the federal level. These charges include prescribing medications outside of his scope of practice and Medicare fraud.
Updates will become available as Keller’s court proceedings progress.
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