Blaming Paxil for Financial Fraud

The side effects of Paxil have become well known enough that convicts are trying to use it as an excuse for their misdeeds. As seen in this report.

Patrick Henry Stewart, a mid level finance professional who stole $1.8-million from ex-employer Jabil Circuit and will be sentenced for wire fraud next week, is waging a last-minute bid to avoid prison time.

His angle? The Paxil made me do it.

Stewart, 42, pled guilty this fall to writing more than 100 company checks to himself and his creditors. In exchange for his cooperation, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a reduction in the maximum prison term of 20 years.

But in motions filed this week, attorney Kevin Darken cited testimony from three psychiatrists who claim Stewart was suffering from an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder when a doctor prescribed him the antidepressant Paxil in 2002. The interaction allegedly flipped a "manic switch" that caused Stewart to make bizarre and impulsive decisions throughout his two-year-long scam.

According to Darken, Stewart allegedly:

- Kept a parrot in his Jabil office even though it bit people; ate a bag of marijuana while in Amsterdam on a business trip; and drank so heavily at an Orlando conference for Jabil controllers that he cut his head open in the pool.

- Bought a 2.2-pound gold bar, a gold-plated Colt .45 pistol, mailboxes for seven of his Hunter's Green neighbors, $100,000 worth of coins, a solo ticket for a trip down the Amazon River and a John Deere lawn mower that he drove home from the store. He also donated more than $25,000 to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Daily shoplifting ventures culminated with his arrest outside a Publix grocery store.

"If this problem had been identified quickly and early ... I have no doubt that Stewart would not have suffered from this manic behavior and would not find himself in his current legal predicament," University of South Florida psychiatric research director David Sheehan said in a letter to the court. "This phenomenon of secondary mania has been well-documented in medical literature."

Stewart called his check-writing scheme compulsive and risky during a 2005 psychiatric evaluation.

"I didn't set up any shadow companies," he reportedly told Sheehan. "I just processed the checks ... (and) copied them on the copier in front of my colleagues and bosses."

Stewart kept each check under $50,000 so that he wouldn't need to obtain a second signature.

Stewart has repaid more than $1-million to Jabil. The federal government is reclaiming still more by seizing his home, cars and other assets.

Jabil spokeswoman Beth Walters said she was unaware of Stewart's last-minute gambit.

"We're confident the U.S. Attorneys' office will address the purported 'Paxil defense' during Monday's hearing," she said.

UPDATE: Apparently the Judge Agrees

A federal judge in Tampa is agreeing with the claim of a business executive who says the anti-depressant drug Paxil prompted him to embezzle one-point-eight million dollars from a former employer.

The judge granted a reduced sentence — sending Patrick Stewart to a year of home confinement and five years of probation. He did so partly because defense lawyers produced studies and experts that said the drug sometimes causes arrogant and uncontrollable behavior in people with bipolar disorder.

Prosecutors wanted Stewart to go to jail for at least three and a-half years.

The company he took the money from says the sentence sends "the wrong message.

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