COLUMBUS, Ohio — Judge Michael Holbrook said he will grant the prosecution's motion to dismiss 11 of the 25 murder charges against Dr. William Husel.
Husel, a former Mount Carmel critical care physician, was fired by Mount Carmel in December 2018.
He is accused of ordering excessive and potentially lethal doses of fentanyl be given to the patients under his care. All of them died.
Prosecutors declined to say why they decided to drop the charges three weeks before the start of the trial.
The central question at his trial will be did the pain medication, other drugs, the rate at which they were given accelerate the deaths of these patients.
All but one of the patients whose cases could get dismissed received less than 1,000 micrograms of fentanyl.
Prosecutors had initially focused their criminal case around those who got 500 micrograms of fentanyl.
Of the 14 cases that could remain, all but three got 1,000 micrograms of fentanyl or more.
It’s not immediately clear how prosecutors chose to dismiss these cases - and they won’t say - but dosage levels for the cases that remain including 9 patients who got 1,000 micrograms of fentanyl, two patients who got 2,000 and three who got 500, 800 and 600, respectively.
Privately, the judge spent Thursday afternoon listening to victim impact statements which were being held in chambers.
This story will be updated.