DuPage County States Attorney

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced that Eugene L. Miller, 69 years old, of Downers Grove plead guilty today in a negotiated plea to one count of Theft by Deception, a class 3 Felony, and two counts of Practicing Medicine Without a License, a class 4 Felony. He was sentenced by Judge Perry Thompson to a term of 2 1/2 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections followed by 2 1/2 years of Probation. The court ordered that the sentences be served consecutively in order to protect the public from further criminal conduct by the defendant. Miller was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims in the amount of $8250 which he paid today.

The defendant’s criminal activity was initially reported by a female patient, Kathy Suess, who had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She went to Miller for alternative modes of treatments on the recommendation of an acquaintance after her medical doctors told her there was nothing more that conventional medicine could do for her. The woman went to Miller’s Downers Grove apartment in early January and on several dates thereafter, where she received magnet treatments, nebulizer therapy, and various potions including doses of “Doc Miller’s Classic Formula.” Miller charged $5,000 for these treatments, which was paid by the victim’s elderly mother. Ms. Suess died in May of this year from her lung cancer.

The defendant also plead guilty to Practicing Medicine Without a License in relation to another victim who sought treatment in December 2004 through January 2005 for treatment of his chronic back pain and diabetes. He too sought an alternative medicine when conventional treatment was unsuccessful in addressing his chronic condition. This victim paid the defendant $3,250 for magnet therapy and magnetized water treatments.

Miller held himself out to both of these victims as a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, when, in fact, his license to practice medicine had been revoked since 1972.

“There is nothing worse than peddling false hope,” stated State’s Attorney Birkett. “The defendant took advantage of these victims in the most despicable way. These people came to him with hope for a cure and money to pay it. This man duped them out of both.”

Birkett also praised the Downers Grove Police, DuMEG, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Drug Administration and Assistant State’s Attorneys Mary K. Cronin and Liam Brennan. “The cooperative effort of all of these agencies was instrumental in the investigation of this case and the just disposition entered by the Court today” said Birkett.