She's an outpatient psychotherapist.

He's a veteran family doctor who developed a cosmetic treatment niche as "Dr. Botox."

But foremost, friends and patients say, Dr. William A. and Barbara Carter are exceptional people who have been badly hurt by the death of their son and by the courtroom and media attention surrounding it.

Tragedy struck the East Hempfield Township couple in December 2008 when their boy, 14-year-old Connor Carter, died unexpectedly while he was recovering from knee surgery.

In early March, Dr. Carter acknowledged in a Lancaster County Court plea that he gave Connor pain-killing medication he'd originally prescribed for someone else.

Friends contend that the physician has been unfairly maligned for engaging in what they say is a widespread medical custom that few know is illegal.

Those contacted for this story praised Carter's medical acumen and vowed to stick by him — and his practice — through thick and thin.

"His reputation's at stake," said 60-year-old Millersville resident Rafael Uerdaz, a patient of Carter's for about 15 years. "[The legal system] just took the reputation of a good man and dragged it down Main Street.

"The whole injustice is not only affecting the Carter family," Uerdaz added, "it's affecting every family he touched."

Uerdaz and others described Carter as compassionate and down-to-earth.

"He's very, very intelligent. I went to see half a dozen specialists and got half a dozen stories," said Uerdaz, who has rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. "I went back to my family doctor and found out that Bill Carter knew more."

Uerdaz said Carter returned to work a week after his son died "with tears in his eyes. ... He's the kind of doctor who would take a chicken if you couldn't pay him. In the world of 10-minute medicine, he's a rarity."

Sarah Leach, 24, York, said she doesn't like to go to doctors' offices. But Carter's is an exception.

"He just makes you feel like the most important person," she said, and he's continued to do so in the midst of his family's ordeal.

Sue Byorick, a 53-year-old registered nurse from Manheim Township, said she and her family have known Carter since 1977.

"He has been our doctor," she added in an e-mail, "but mostly our friend. I cannot even begin to imagine their agony at this loss, and the treatment they have received."

Like everyone else contacted for this story, Barry Spangler cannot wait until the doctor is back in business.

"He's made some diagnoses on me that other doctors have missed," said Spangler, 59, of Manheim Township. "I'll be the first patient knocking on his door once he gets his license back. ... I just hope now he'll have a new beginning."