New Jersey endocrinologist James Kauffman, MD, who earlier this month was charged with arranging the murder of his wife five and a half years ago, as well as running an illegal pill mill, has been found dead of an apparent suicide in his cell at Hudson County jail.
According to numerous press reports Dr Kauffman took his own life this past Friday.
The Washington Post reports a “law enforcement official familiar with the case” said Dr Kauffman suffocated himself using a strip of sheet while his cellmate was at a court hearing. He penned a six-page suicide note and had lain down to make it seem he was asleep, the official said.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed Dr Kauffman’s death in a statement, saying it had been notified “of the apparent suicide by the Hudson County’s Prosecutor’s Office,” according to PhillyVoice.com.
Dr Kauffman had been moved to Hudson County jail, just outside Jersey City, after being charged with his wife’s murder, from Atlantic County jail because of “credible threats to his life,” the website notes.
He had been detained in the latter facility on weapons charges after wielding a gun in June 2017 when authorities searched his medical practice. In September 2017, Dr Kauffman pleaded not guilty to the weapons charges but was remanded in custody. His medical license was suspended in New Jersey and Pennsylvania pending resolution of the charges.
Then 3 weeks ago he was also charged with murder, having allegedly hired someone to kill his wife. That charge came alongside two more: first-degree racketeering and being a leader of a narcotic-trafficking organization.
Prosecutors outlined a lurid tale that involved Dr Kauffman running an opioid ‘pill mill’ together with the notorious American gang the Pagans Motorcycle Club. His wife, April Kauffman, found out about the illegal drug-prescribing scheme and threatened to expose it, and she also wanted out of the marriage, the prosecutors alleged.
The illegal drug scheme continued after April Kauffman’s death in 2012, said her family and friends, as Dr Kauffman continued to practice and remarried in 2014.
At the time of the murder charge in early January, Dr Kauffman’s attorney Ed Jacobs said his client “has consistently denied any involvement whatsoever in the homicide of his wife.”
After learning of Dr Kauffman’s death, Jacobs told The Press of Atlantic City: “I feel bad for his widow. I think all the things that occurred in the last 5 years took a toll on Jim.” Jacobs was referring to Dr Kauffman’s most recent wife, Carole Weintraub.
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