The trial of a Tallulah physician accused of writing prescriptions to support his live-in girlfriend’s drug habit begins today.

Jury selection began this morning in the prescription forgery trial of Dr. Lawrence Francis Chenier III, 61, who lives in Vicksburg but practices medicine in Tallulah.
Circuit Judge M. James Chaney is presiding over the trial.

Chenier, who is represented by Lisa Ross of Jackson and Marshall Sanders of Vicksburg, is accused of 74 counts of prescription forgery and a single count of conspiracy.

Prosecutors say that before narcotics agents raided his home in 2011 Chenier wrote prescriptions for 13,000 pills of painkillers that were picked up by his live-in girlfriend, 43-year-old Pattie Carr at Battlefield Drugs near the home they share at 100 Colonial Drive.

More than 300 empty pill bottles were found inside a bedroom closet at the couple’s home.
Carr, who is represented by John Bullard, pleaded guilty in June to five counts of prescription forgery. During a sentencing hearing in September, Carr said Chenier did not know she was abusing painkillers. Though she is off drugs, she testified at the hearing, she is still living with Chenier.

Chaney has not yet announced a sentence in Carr’s guilty plea.

The couple is also the target of a civil lawsuit filed in January 2012
by District Attorney Ricky Smith. The suit seeks to seize the home on Colonial Drive.
The house and land are subject to forfeiture because of having been used to facilitate violation of the Mississippi Uniform Controlled Substances Law, the suit claims.
The suit is still pending before Warren County Judge Johnny Price.
Chenier is listed on the roster at Madison Parish Hospital, according to the hospital’s website, however, the state of Louisiana has placed his medical license on probation.
He received his medical degree in 1980 at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and has been in practice since 1982, records show.