A Shelby Township doctor illegally prescribed hundreds of thousands of opioid pills that had a street value of more than $6 million, federal prosecutors said.
This week, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy sentenced the 75-year-old doctor to 12 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of 20 counts in December, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office and court records. federal court
Prosecutors said Dr. Lawrence Sherman illegally distributed more than 270,000 opioid pills worth more than $6.3 million. They said in a statement that the pills contained three of the most addictive prescription opioids, including oxycodone, oxymorphone and Percocet, which also have a high commercial value.
The charges stemmed from Sherman’s involvement in the operation of Tranquility Wellness Center Inc., from spring 2020 to June 2021, where he worked part-time. The center operated first in Dearborn and later in St. Clair Shores, according to the release. This is where they alleged Sherman illegally prescribed the drugs.
Federal agents executed search and arrest warrants against Sherman and the center in June 2021, with four other people connected to the clinic charged. The other defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced, according to the statement.
He claimed that evidence during the trial showed that Sherman conspired with the other defendants to illegally authorize more than 3,000 opioid prescriptions for alleged “patients” who had no legitimate medical need for the drugs and who were brought to the center by the “patient recruiter/”. sellers”.
Prosecutors said the center only accepted cash and charged “patients” for the amount, type and dosage of prescription opioids they received. He also created fraudulent medical records for “patients,” they said.
The jury also heard evidence and testimony that Sherman issued more than 270,000 prescription dosage units of Schedule II opioids, which had a street value of more than $6.3 million, according to the release.
Although the illegal prescriptions for controlled substances were paid for in cash, he claimed the pharmacies billed the controlled and non-controlled “maintenance” drugs to the health benefit programs. According to the statement, bills to the Medicare and Medicaid programs for prescription drugs and unnecessary maintenance drugs during the conspiracy exceeded $500,000.
Prosecutors believe Sherman received nearly $168,000 in earnings for his role in the conspiracy, according to his sentencing memorandum filed in court, which said Sherman “did not practice real medicine at Tranquility. He was a prescription drug dealer.” .
Before Sherman started a part-time job at Tranquility, he worked as medical director at the Macomb County Jail from 2014-17, according to the sentencing memorandum. He also claims that he and his wife, a retired nurse, have a home in Michigan; a $650,000 second home in Florida; a retirement account with nearly $1 million and a net worth of more than $1.1 million.
Prosecutors recommended more than 16 years in prison. They claimed that Sherman “traded his medical license for the easy money that came from illegally injecting some 270,000 highly addictive prescription opioid pills into the community he was supposed to serve,” according to their memorandum of sentence
He testified that he made a “short, cookie-cutter office visit” with each ‘patient’ during their first visit, for which Sherman was paid $100, if he prescribed the ‘patient’ an opioid and failed pay if he didn’t prescribe an opioid.opioid, he even thought he had made the “visit,” according to the memo.
After that, Sherman electronically issued additional monthly opioid prescriptions on behalf of “patients” as requested and paid for by the “patient” or the recruiter, he claims, without interacting with the “patient” or checking any screens of drug urine.
Month:Michigan doctors jailed for fueling opioid epidemic: They’re ‘killing us’
Sherman’s attorney, Summer McKeivier, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Sherman, who was 74, spent decades of his life dedicated to treating traditionally underserved communities and made contributions to medicine. That memorandum called for a sentence of three years in prison to be sufficient, but not more than necessary.
“While Dr. Sherman challenges the jury’s verdicts, he does not dispute the seriousness of the crimes,” McKeivier wrote in the memorandum. “Dr. Sherman entered medical school nearly fifty years ago. Since then, he has witnessed the pitfalls of the medical system and worked to fix those problems while treating patients and fulfilling his duty to” do no harm.” Dr. Sherman has immense knowledge of the horrors caused by the opioid epidemic and understands the gravity of the matter.”
Sherman’s DEA registration will be revoked as a result of his convictions, McKeivier wrote, and he will not be allowed to prescribe controlled substances.
If the court imposed prison, Sherman asked the Bureau of Prisons to assign him to FCC Coleman Camp, a low-security institution in Florida, to place him close to home and that offers vocational programs and rehabilitation in which he would like to participate. according to his sentencing memorandum.
McKeivier could not immediately be reached Friday.
U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in her office’s statement that health care professionals “have an opportunity and a duty to help address the terrible impact the opioid epidemic has had on our community , but Dr. Sherman decided to make it worse.”
Cheyvoryea Gibson, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Michigan, agreed, saying Sherman’s actions “put countless lives at risk, which goes against the oath he took as a doctor.”
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @challreporter.
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