The attorney for Nick Tran claims that race is a factor in the federal case against the Biloxi pharmacist.

Attorney David Morrison said in new federal court documents that Tran is innocent and is being prosecuted because he is Vietnamese. The brief also suggests the government showed an “unlawful bias” by leaking to the news media the raid on Tran’s pharmacy and an adjoining medical clinic.

Nick Tran is accused of filling illegal prescriptions allegedly written by a husband-and-wife doctor team who operated a clinic next door to his business. The doctors have pleaded guilty in the case.

Nick Tran is the last of the defendants in the case. His trial was supposed to begin in late October, but was delayed when his lawyers were not prepared.

In the court filing Thursday, Morrison says another pharmacist, who is white, was filling similar prescriptions alongside Nick Tran, but was not charged.

Tran’s lawyer also argues that other pharmacies in the area had filled narcotics prescriptions written by the doctors without any prosecution.