A physician and a man with whom he co-owned clinics were sentenced to 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances.
Dr. Jonathan Rosenfield, 40, of Atlanta, and Elmer Taylor, 44, of Houston, co-owned and operated Sunnyside Medical, a group of medical clinics in Houston, according to a Nov. 16 news release from the Justice Department. Dr. Rosenfield, Mr. Taylor and their co-conspirators issued prescriptions for opioids, including approximately 752,000 pills of oxycodone and 419,000 pills of hydrocodone, under Dr. Rosenfield's name, outside the usual course of practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.
The prescriptions often were issued to individuals paid by drug dealers to pose as patients, and from May 2018 to August 2019, the clinic earned approximately $5,478,000 from the sale of illegal prescription drugs, according to the release.
Their co-defendants Sokari Bobmanuel and Alantha Stewart were previously sentenced to 14 and 10 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.