Why was Dr. Nick taken to trial?
Despite the abundance of medical issues Elvis reported facing, many people raised suspicions about whether Dr. Nick was justified to prescribe so many different medications.
Three years later, in 1980, Dr. Nick was indicted on 14 counts of overprescribing drugs to 14 musicians, including Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. A jury acquitted the doctor, but his legal troubles were far from over.
In 1995, the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners once again brought complaints against Dr. Nick. This time, according to the AP, the medical board found he committed gross malpractice and unethical conduct with 13 patients, including Jerry. “The doctor himself agreed that some of his patients were addicts, yet he gave them their drug of choice,” a board member said at the time. “That’s certainly unethical.”
Dr. Nick appealed the decision several times, with the NY Times reporting the doctor told the board he overprescribed because he “cared too much.”
He went on to tell The Daily Beast in 2009, “No one understands that Elvis was so complicated. I worked so hard just to keep things together and then they turned the tables on me after he died and decided I was to blame.”
