Jury convicts ex-doctor on firearm, drug charges

Simons

(AP) — A federal jury has convicted a former Kansas doctor of illegally having a handgun and drugs.

Jurors found 57-year-old Lawrence M. Simons of Wichita guilty Thursday of unlawful possession of a firearm after a felony conviction and unlawful possession of controlled substances. The jury found him not guilty of illegally possessing ammunition.

Simons, a convicted felon, was on probation when he was accused earlier this year of giving a bondsman a gun as partial payment for bailing him out of jail in an unrelated domestic threat case.

Prosecutors also contend that because he had earlier surrendered his license to write prescriptions, he could not lawfully possess drugs that were later found in storage lockers. Simons was first convicted in 2010 for unlawfully distributing controlled substances.

He’ll be sentenced Feb. 10.