STATE COLLEGE – Two Philipsburg doctors were arrested Tuesday for illegally prescribing narcotics to a confidential informant in exchange for a profit from the street sale of the drugs.
Dr. Larry Adams, 47, and Dr. Michael Fuentes were identified by Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett during a news conference in State College Tuesday afternoon.
The doctors, Corbett said, maintain a medical practice in Philipsburg, Centre County, known as Mid-State Medical.
The attorney general and Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Tim Mercer jointly made the announcement.
“Medical practitioners take an oath to protect and serve the best interest of their patients,” Corbett said. “Unfortunately, these two doctors clearly took advantage of a person with a severe drug addiction in order to serve their own selfish interests.”
An undercover investigation into the Adams and Fuentes medical practice began in January with a confidential informant working in conjunction with the attorney general’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and the state police.
Corbett said in January 2007, the confidential informant testified to police that — following a serious work-related accident in 2000 — he was prescribed pain medication and was taking it as prescribed.
According to a grand jury, the confidential informant began to see Adams in 2001 or 2002. Adams raised the confidential informant’s dosage of his Dilaudid prescription, and additionally prescribed Percocet and OxyContin.
Corbett said the three prescription drugs are all Schedule II narcotics with strict medical controls due to their high potential for abuse and the risk that abuse may lead to severe psychic or physical dependence.
The confidential informant testified that he began to abuse the drugs shortly after Adam’s prescribed them. He began to inject the OxyContin, while still taking the other prescription pills, and alleges that over a period of three to four years, he took up to 150 pills per day.
Corbett said about six to eight months after the confidential informant began to abuse the prescribed drugs, the confidential informant started selling them on the street and shared the profits with Adams and, on occasion, Fuentes.
According to the grand jury, Adams allegedly prescribed brand name drugs to the CI because the brand name drugs were often easier to abuse and to sell to other drug users than their generic counterparts were.
The street value of OxyContin at the time of the investigation was approximately $10 for a 20-milligram pill, $30 for a 40-milligram pill, and $60 for an 80-milligram pill. The confidential informant also stated that he could sell 100 80-milligram pills for $6,000.
Corbett said the confidential informant would give Adams approximately $500 to $1,000 at a time, and estimates that Adams received tens of thousands of dollars over the three to four year period from the confidential informant.
Corbett said the confidential informant was upfront about his drug dependency and both Adams and Fuentes knew the extent of his addiction. In fact, both Doctors would use that against him by withholding prescriptions until the confidential informant did something for them in return.
In particular, according to the grand jury, Adams would write a prescription or give the confidential informant drugs in exchange for guns that he knew were obtained illegally from other drug users. The confidential informant had estimated that Adams received 30 to 40 guns over the course of their relationship.
Adams also asked the confidential informant to obtain electronics, haul vehicles, and other items both in and out of the state.
The grand jury revealed that the confidential informant used cash, worker’s compensation insurance, or a Medical Assistance Access card to fill the prescriptions, and on several occasions, Adams had given the confidential informant cash or a check to have the prescriptions filled.
Corbett said Adams and Fuentes would deliver pills and prescriptions to the confidential informant at the offices of Mid-State Medical, the confidential informant’s residence, both of the doctors’ residences, various parking lots, and on one occasion, a hotel.
Corbett said the grand jury revealed that Adams would also write blank prescriptions to the confidential informant and showed him how to fill out the prescription properly. In addition, Adams gave the confidential informant his Drug Enforcement Administration number.
When pharmacists would question Adams about the large volumes of prescriptions written for the confidential informant, he would lie and tell them the confidential informant’s wife had flushed the pills down the toilet or that the confidential informant had returned another prescription to Adams. Eventually, Adams told the confidential informant how to cover his addiction when questioned by pharmacists.
Corbett said at one point the confidential informant’s wife asked Adams to cease writing prescriptions for Adams due to his abuse. Adams would discuss these contacts with the confidential informant and told him that his wife was trying to cause problems for him.
On one occasion, the confidential informant overdosed in a truck owned by Adams and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. Adams went to the hospital to visit the confidential informant and upon his release, immediately wrote the confidential informant a prescription for more pain medicine.
Corbett said that during the course of the investigation, Adams and Fuentes never examined the confidential informant’s work-related injury that was the initial cause of his medical treatment.
Corbett said Adams and Fuentes were arrested Tuesday and arraigned by Philipsburg Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair.
Adams is charged with seven counts prescribing outside accepted treatment principles, seven counts dispensing or prescribing to a drug dependent person, four counts willful dispensing of a controlled substance without proper labeling, nine counts drug delivery, five counts possession, one count criminal use of a communication facility, one count criminal conspiracy, one count Medicaid Fraud, one count receiving stolen property, two counts criminal solicitation to commit violation of sale or transfer of firearms, one count dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, one count refusal or failure to keep required records, and five counts obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation or fraud.
Fuentes is charged with seven counts prescribing outside accepted medical principles, seven counts obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation or fraud, seven counts dispensing or prescribing to a drug dependant person, one count drug delivery, one count criminal conspiracy, one count criminal use of a communication facility, and one count refusal or failure to keep required records.
Corbett thanked the state police for their assistance in the investigation.
Both Adams and Fuentes will be prosecuted in Centre County by Senior Deputy Attorney Generals Janice Martino-Gottshall and Larry Cherba.
Following preliminary arraignment Tuesday, Adams was released on $500,000 unsecured bail and Fuentes was released on $100,000 unsecured bail. Both were ordered to surrender their passports.