Pubdate: Fri, 30 Nov 2001
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2001 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Lawrence Messina
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin)

MINGO DOCTOR ARRAIGNED IN DRUG CASE

A suspended Mingo County doctor will stand trial Jan. 8 on 18 charges 
alleging he illegally dispensed OxyContin, a federal magistrate ruled 
Thursday.

U.S. Magistrate Mary Stanley arraigned Dr. Armando M. Acosta, who was 
arrested on federal charges earlier this fall. The Nov. 18 indictment 
against Acosta alleges he provided the powerful, often-abused 
painkiller to two unidentified people between April and July of last 
year.

Stanley said she planned to keep the Jan. 8 trial date after Acosta, 
54, said he was looking for new lawyers to defend him. He was then 
returned to the South Central Regional Jail, where he has been held 
without bail.

Prosecutors have presented evidence alleging that Acosta's Delbarton 
practice routinely provided OxyContin to patients who did not need 
it. Investigators say they found scores of blank prescription slips 
there that already bore Acosta's signature.

State charges, meanwhile, allege Acosta sexually assaulted an 
incapacitated female patient six times over the past year. 
Prosecutors believe Acosta demanded sex from patients after hooking 
them on OxyContin, exchanging favors for prescriptions.

At a previous hearing, Stanley sealed three of a number of photos 
that depict Acosta having sex with at least a dozen women in his 
office. The photos were apparently taken with a camera installed high 
in one corner of the office.

Acosta had been on probation since 1997 with the state Board of 
Medicine, which suspended his license after his arrest as part of an 
agreed order. The board has heard a string of ethics allegations 
against the Cuban-born family doctor, who began practicing in West 
Virginia in 1983.
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