30 months in prison for opioid co-conspirator
Sarah Brown, 42, of Acra, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in federal court in Albany.
A former registered nurse and admitted coconspirator in a scheme to distribute opioids in Greene County was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in federal prison, authorities said.
Sarah Brown, 42, of Acra, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in U.S. Northern District Court in Albany after admitting on Sept. 4, 2019, that she and co-conspirator Dr. Myra Mabry, 50, of Catskill, obtained prescriptions for oxycodone, morphine and hydromorphone, for no legitimate medical purpose, by impersonating Mabry’s patients at pharmacies, knowing that health care benefit programs would pay the cost of the drugs, U.S. Attorney Grant C. Jaquith said in a press release. D’Agostino also sentenced Brown to three years of post-release supervision, Jaquith said.
In court, Brown also admitted that she attempted to obstruct a federal investigation by testifying falsely before a federal grand jury that she was blackmailing Mabry into providing the prescriptions, according to the press release. As Brown admitted in her guilty plea, that was a lie, because Mabry was not the subject of an extortion scheme, but a willing participant in the conspiracy to illegally distribute opioids.
Brown further admitted that Mabry agreed to pay her for the false testimony in the hope of minimizing Mabry’s own criminal exposure and keeping her medical license.
Mabry pleaded guilty on Aug. 5, 2019, to conspiring to distribute controlled substances, health care fraud, aggravated identity theft and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to 54 months in prison earlier this month.
Mabry surrendered her New York medical license after pleading guilty and has been unable to prescribe controlled substances since October 2017, authorities have said.
The original complaint identified Brown, the coconspirator, by the initials “S.B.,” and as a heroin addict.
This case was investigated by the DEA, with assistance from the New York Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne A. Myers.