Thursday's scheduled sentencing of Charles L. Ellinger O'Brien, a former loan officer who stole $450,000 from SunTrust Bank, has been postponed.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne rescheduled proceedings until July 9. Payne has expressed concern about sending O'Brien to prison because authorities will not assure him that O'Brien will receive all his medications.

O'Brien needs 10 drugs daily for his bipolar disorder, a drug regimen his physicians say took years to develop. He is also disabled from a brain injury suffered in a fall.

A court-appointed expert called as a witness by the government last month agreed that any change to O'Brien's medication should be done slowly and one drug at a time, if at all.

However, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said that while O'Brien would be adequately cared for, it was unlikely the same medications would be given him in prison.

In papers filed this week, David T. Maguire, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has now agreed to keep O'Brien on his same medications for the first 30 days and to notify Payne before changing any of the drugs.

Maguire wrote that he does not believe Payne has the authority to order the prison to keep O'Brien on the same medication throughout his prison term.

In papers filed for O'Brien this week, his lawyer, Craig S. Cooley, agreed that Payne does not have the authority to enforce such an order and that the 30-day offer, "is a thinly disguised pretense to be compliant."

O'Brien was a loan officer with SunTrust Bank, where he fraudulently obtained a $450,000 loan in 2001. The proceeds were to be used to raise money for the Hampden-Sydney Foundation that he had created. Instead, O'Brien used it for a country club membership and to buy cars, including a Mercedes-Benz and a Porsche.
Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreen@timesdispatch.com.