A federal grand jury delivered a new indictment against 11 former pain management clinic employees accused of participating in a multiclinic pill mill operation, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.
Here's what you should know:
1. Former owners, physicians and staff of Hope Clinic — which operated locations in Charleston, W.Va., Beckley, W.Va., Beaver, W.Va., and Wytheville, Va. — face a combined 59 criminal counts, including conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and money laundering.
2. The alleged conspirators illegally distributed Schedule 2 controlled substances between November 2010 and June 2015. They are accused of making more than $21 million for distributing thousands of pills to patients who were likely drug addicts. At least one Hope Clinic patient fatally overdosed, the indictment states.
3. James Blume Jr., DO, owned Hope Clinic. Mark T. Radcliffe owned Patients, Physicians and Pharmacists Fighting Diversion and served as Hope Clinic's practice manager through a physician practice management agreement with Dr. Blume.
They allegedly operated the clinic as a cash-based business and refused to accept insurance for reimbursement.
4. The new indictment includes 10 fewer charges than the original one, but it includes new accusations that Mr. Radcliffe and his son used firearms while participating in the scheme.
5. In August, a defendant in the initial case pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
Here are the individuals named in the indictment:
- Dr. James H. Blume Jr.
- Mark. T. Radcliffe
- Joshua Radcliffe
- Michael T. Moran, MD
- Sanjay Mehta, DO
- Brian Gullett, DO
- Vernon Stanley, MD
- Mark Clarkson, DO
- William Earley, DO
- Paul W. Burke Jr., MD
- Roswell Tempest Lowry, MD