Pubdate: Tue, 11 Feb 2003
Source: Florence Morning News, The (SC)
Copyright: 2003 Media General, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.morningnewsonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1525
Author: Traci Bridges
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

DOCTORS CONVICTED IN NORTH MYRTLE BEACH OXYCONTIN CASE

FLORENCE -- Three former physicians were convicted Monday of illegal drug 
distribution, money laundering and criminal conspiracy in what authorities 
say they believe to be the largest prosecution of an OxyContin "pill mill" 
in state history.

A jury deliberated Monday before delivering guilty verdicts against Drs. 
Ricardo Alerre, Deborah Bordeaux and Michael Jackson, all former employees 
of the Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center in North Myrtle Beach.

Alerre, Bordeaux and Jackson were the final defendants to be convicted on 
drug and money laundering charges connected to a multi-million dollar 
illegal narcotics ring that operated behind the facade of the pain clinic.

The clinic's owner and alleged leader of the illegal conspiracy, 
45-year-old David Michael Woodward opted to plead guilty to conspiracy to 
possess with intent to distribute Schedule II controlled substances 
(Oxycodone), conspiracy to launder money and health care fraud rather than 
face trial.

Former clinic physicians Deborah Sutherland, 52; Thomas P. Devlin, 60; 
Venkata Pulivarthi, 42, also pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against 
Alerre, Bordeaux and Jackson.

In all, a total of eight doctors, three employees and 20 patients of the 
Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center were convicted in connection 
with a 93-count federal indictment handed down late last year.

"I was very pleased with the verdicts and the entire outcome of this 
investigation," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William E. Day II of the 
Florence office, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorneys 
Debbie Barbier and William Witherspoon of the Columbia office. "We've 
successfully dismantled a huge illegal drug organization. We've put them 
out of business."

The government's successful prosecution of the former pain clinic 
physicians and employees was the result of an extensive investigation by a 
task force made up of agents representing the Drug Enforcement 
Administration-Diversion Division, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services and several sheriff's offices 
throughout the state.

The doctors charged in the federal indictment all worked at the 
Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center in Myrtle Beach at some point 
between 1997 until the time it closed in June 2001.

During their time of employment there, the doctors saw hundreds of patients 
each week and prescribed a wide range of Schedule II and III controlled 
substances which were not medically necessary.

During the trial, former patients of the clinic testified that the doctors 
there gave little to no physical examination before prescribing large 
amounts of heavy narcotic painkillers such as Hydrocodone, Lortab, Valium, 
Xanax and Oxycodone in the form of OxyContin.

Jackson and some of the other doctors named in the indictment also admitted 
during trial that they sometimes met with more than one patient - a 
practice known as "fast-tracking" - in an effort to increase the number of 
patients seen each day and the clinic's revenue. Some of the defendants 
also admitted to signing blank prescriptions on occasion in violation of 
DEA regulations and federal law.

OxyContin contains a large amount of active ingredient compared to other 
narcotic products. It is said to produce effects similar to those of heroin 
when used improperly and is sometimes referred to as "poor man's heroin" 
despite the high price it commands at the street level.

A former patient of the clinic testified during trial that the pain 
center's doctors prescribed him large amounts of OxyContin, which he turned 
around and sold on the street for anywhere between $10 and $75 a pill.

Each of the physicians convicted in connection with the Comprehensive Care 
and Pain Management Center case face at least 20 years to life in prison. 
Individual sentencing hearings will be set after a Department of Probation 
completes a pre-sentencing investigation and report for each of the defendants.
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