Coroner resigns from directing methadone clinic

Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller announced his resignation as director of the Green Dragonfly methadone clinic in Waukegan. He will leave the clinic Sept. 7.

The clinic is under investigation by the Lake County State's Attorney's office after a 30-year-old Lindenhurst man died after receiving two doses of methadone in separate visits.

Keller said his decision has no connection to the investigation.

"It was my intent all along to stay as the director for a short period of time through the clinic's accreditation process," he said Monday. "This is what I've been planning all along."

Keller said he did a similar thing in 1993 when he worked to create an HIV primary care clinic at the former St. Therese hospital in Waukegan. "Once it was up and going, I stepped down," he said. "This is similar to that."

Steven Vaughn, 30, of Lindenhurst, died Dec. 3 after receiving the methadone at the clinic.

Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller said Vaughn first visited the clinic Dec. 2, when he was given a dose of 40 milligrams of methadone, a drug usually used to fight heroin addiction but one that is also abused as a recreational drug.

Waller said Vaughn returned to the clinic the next day, complaining he had been very ill the night before and had been vomiting, and was given a 70-milligram dose of methadone.

Vaughn left the clinic and returned home, Waller said, and his mother found him dead about 3 p.m. that day.

An investigation by the coroner's office determined Vaughn's death was due to the combination of methadone and Xanax, a powerful painkiller, in his system. Waller said investigators are concerned clinic personnel did not do the mandated urine or blood screen of Vaughn before giving him the methadone.

Keller was elected coroner in 2004 and has also decided not to run for re-election when his term expires in 2012.