Jurors and Prosecutors Sink a Federal Case Against Internet Pharmacies

Ellsworth says the case illustrates how the law struggles to keep up with ever-changing technology. "There's no such thing as an internet pharmacy," he says. "A pharmacy is a building with people and boxes and pills. The government seems to have a problem with the lack of a physical encounter between a doctor and a patient — that someone can obtain a controlled substance without seeing a doctor in person."

Rosenbaum agrees that government efforts to resist technological change are futile. Sure, the internet may make it easier for abusers to get drugs, he says, but "the internet makes a lot of things easier. People can lie to doctors in face-to-face meetings too."

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Judge Zloch, ringmaster of the three-ring legal circus.

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• Sean Ellsworth
• Frank Hernandez
• Peter Raben
• Trials
• Criminal Trials

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Ironically, just last week, a new federal law called the Ryan Haight Act went into effect. Named after an 18-year-old who overdosed on Vicodin he bought online, the law makes drug-disbursement networks like E.V.A. Global clearly illegal by requiring doctors and patients to meet in person. But the Hernandez case could still have an effect on other federal cases that were filed before the law took effect and are still making their way through the courts.

Bogenschutz speaks as though the dismissal of charges renewed his faith in the American justice system: "For everyone out there who thinks the courts have abandoned their roles as neutral arbiters of what's in front of them," he says grandly, "this should be a wake-up call." He theorized that when in doubt, "the judge should say, 'Is this what the law is meant for? When I don't have a good feeling, the call should go in the way of the defendant.' "

The U.S. Attorney's office refused to comment for this article.