Tennessee Pill Mill Fugitive Arrested In Hollywood
HOLLYWOOD (CBS4) – Facing charges connected to running a pill mill in Tennessee, Tamral (Tammy) Guzman walked out of her federal trial in Knoxville earlier this month and never returned.
U.S. Marshals tracked her and boyfriend to South Florida where they arrested her Wednesday morning at a Hollywood motel.
"I left because I knew I wasn't going to get a fair trial," said Guzman who spoke exclusively to CBS4's Brian Andrews.
Marshals said they got their big break Tuesday evening when they spotted Guzman's car, which had Tennessee plates, on the street in front of the St. Maurice Motel on Hollywood Beach.
Guzman and her boyfriend, Brian Hatcher who was also wanted in Tennessee for a probation violation, had been living at the motel near Buchanan Street.
They paid for the room each week in cash and took jobs as waiters at a Broadwalk cafe called "Brochetterie." Their co-workers said they only knew her as "Kim" and had no idea she was a wanted woman.
Hatcher told Andrews that federal prosecutors planned to make an example out Guzman. He said she didn't deserve to spend the rest of her life in prison for filling out prescription forms that were pre-signed by a nurse practitioner.
"You sit and let people put on evidence against you for six straight days and you know that if you get found guilty that you're going away forever, you would leave too," said Hatcher. "It was a complete railroad! She's guilty of some type of fraud, prescription fraud because her nurse practitioner pre-signed the prescription and she filled it out. She's guilty of fraud at best; it's not supposed to cost a lady her life."
Guzman, the former owner of the Maryville Pain Management Clinic, will appear in Federal Magistrate's Court in Fort Lauderdale and be extradited to Knoxville, where she was convicted in absentia on 57 counts of drug and money laundering charges.
