Attorneys for a Clayton County psychiatrist accused of causing the overdose-deaths of numerous patients are seeking "a more flexible bond arrangement" that would allow the physician to work.
Dr. Narendra Nagareddy is set to go before Judge Matthew Simmons Dec. 6 in a 9 a.m. hearing, Nagareddy’s attorney Steve Frey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As it stands now, Nagareddy is confined to his Henry County home under a $456,000 bond. Nagareddy has been house-bound since June.
“There’s some restrictions in his bond and we’d like to have them either relaxed or removed,” Frey said. “We’d like for him to be able to worship and see his attorney in his attorney’s office and if employment opportunities outside of medicine (are available), we’d like to see him be able to avail himself of them.”
Nagareddy was arrested in January and charged with prescribing painkillers to 29-year-old Audrey Austin who died of an overdose. Then in May, Nagareddy was charged with killing at least three of his patients who died of drug overdoses.
An AJC investigation found inaction, missed signals and state law that blocks regulators from activating an early warning system allowed the doctor for years to prescribe what authorities say were inordinate amounts of drugs.
Nagareddy was arrested after more than a year of undercover investigations and interviews with medical professionals as well as current and former patients. Although the case was a local-state-federal operation, the charges against Nagareddy will be brought in state court rather than federal court.
A trial date has not been set.
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