U.S. drug case against Towson doctor to start

An ordinary diet doctor or an illegal drug dealer?

That question should take center stage in federal court today when a once-prominent Towson physician is scheduled to go on trial on charges that he illegally manufactured the club drug Ecstasy.

Prosecutors are expected to expose the alleged double life of Robert M. Keenan, 45, affectionately known to his patients as "Dr. Bob," a physician who made his name promoting pills as the key to weight loss and now stands accused of peddling illegal substances.

Authorities said they found what amounted to a full-scale drug lab inside his half-million-dollar condo in Fells Point, including Valium stowed in a closet, a green liquid precursor to Ecstasy "oozing from one end" of a sealed pipe in his heated oven, and pounds of white powder piled on his dining room table - tested as phentermine hydrochloride, an appetite suppressant and ingredient in the diet drug fen-phen, according to court documents.

Police said they found a lab manual in his bathroom, a virtual cookbook for manufacturing illegal drugs at another nearby residence and another chemistry article inside his office at Elite Weight Management Center in Towson.

But Keenan's lawyers argue in court papers that the doctor was a licensed practitioner allowed to dispense phentermine.

Prosecutors confirmed they later dropped phentermine-related charges when they amended their indictment.

Keenan's attorneys also are likely to challenge the case by noting what federal agents did not find in searches at his two homes: Ecstasy.

He is charged with conspiring to make the illegal drug, but prosecutors can only estimate how much he allegedly produced, according to an attorney familiar with the case.

A grand jury indicted Keenan in October on charges of conspiring to cook up more than 10 kilograms of Ecstasy, illegally manufacturing and possessing with intent to manufacture phentermine hydrochloride and repackaging the drug at an unregistered facility.

Federal intervention

The federal indictment came after a sudden shift out of state court when U.S. authorities marched into the local proceedings in downtown Baltimore minutes before Keenan's trial was to start and arrested him.

Authorities got a break when the doctor's alleged accomplice pleaded guilty to drug charges last week, but it is unclear whether he would be called to testify against Keenan.

The criminal proceedings against Keenan are expected to last up to 1 1/2 weeks in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

His attorney did not return a call for comment Friday.

The U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment.

The investigation by agents with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration began in 2001 and took them to his Fell Street condominium, his weight loss office in Towson and a padlocked suite in Hampden, where officials allege Keenan had an encapsulating machine that turned bulk powder into homemade pills.