A 53-year-old Janesville man who was considered a prominent doctor in the Rock County area has been sentenced to two years probation along with a $3,000 fine for prescription fraud. The doctor, who once worked at Beloit Health System as the head of the emergency medicine department, was initially indicted in Madison last August on 15 counts of allegedly obtaining prescription drugs by fraud.
The doctor pleaded guilty to the charges last December. As part of the plea agreement, the charges were reduced to one count of prescription fraud.
According to court documents, the charges stemmed from a series of alleged incidents in which the doctor obtained doses of the medication Percocet, a prescription painkiller, by writing out prescriptions in the names of various patients and then sending them to different vending machines that dispensed prescription drugs at Beloit Memorial Hospital, Wellness and NorthPointe Health. The doctor would then allegedly retrieve the drugs he had prescribed and take them himself.
As part of the arrangements of his probation, the doctor was ordered to surrender his Drug Enforcement Administration registration. According to the American Association of Osteopathic Medicine, this registration provides medical professionals with a unique tracking number that allows them to legally write prescriptions for controlled substances. The doctor has also agreed that he will not apply for this registration for a period of three years.
Drug charges such as prescription fraud can have serious consequences such as jail time and stiff fines for defendants who are convicted. An experienced Wisconsin criminal attorney can assist a defendant and possibly help to build a criminal defense that would reduce these types of charges.
Source: Beloit Daily News, “Former Beloit ER doctor sentenced for drug fraud” No author given, Apr. 15, 2014
