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SALT LAKE CITY — Federal prosecutors want a judge to reconsider the lighter prison term he gave a Brigham City pill doctor convicted of illegally prescribing pain killers.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a motion Tuesday saying U.S. District Judge Dee Benson failed to hold a hearing before reducing Dewey C. MacKay's sentence from 20 years to three years last week. Benson imposed the new sentence in a written order.
Prosecutors say neither they nor victims in the case had an opportunity to be heard in court.
Benson drastically cut MacKay's prison time after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to him because it was unclear whether he intended to impose 20 years on each count
The judge sentenced MacKay, 66, after a jury found him guilty of 37 counts of illegally dispensing painkillers — including two that resulted in the death of a 55-year-old man — and three counts of using a communication device in a drug trafficking offense in December 2011. Jurors acquitted him of 44 other counts.
Benson wrestled with the original 20-year sentence and reluctantly imposed it under federal minimum-mandatory guidelines.
