‘Pill mill’ case goes to trial

Boca man fights drug charges

Prosecutors call Richard McMillan an “unconventional drug dealer” who used to run a South Florida “pill mill” network until a 2011 raid by authorities.

The Boca Raton man’s lawyers contend he was a successful of “legitimate” pain management clinics that aimed to help patients and make profits.

“If that is the crime, my client is guilty,” attorney Marc Nurik told a Palm Beach County jury at the beginning of a trial Wednesday. He later emphasized, “This was anything but a pill mill.”

McMillan, 45, is fighting 11 felony charges, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and nine counts of trafficking in oxycodone.

Before the trial, McMillan turned down a plea offer of a 10-year prison sentence. The charges facing the divorced father of two children are punishable by up to 330 years.

Authorities arrested McMillan and his business partner, Pasquale Gervasio, formerly of Parkland, after shutting down their Total Medical Express clinics in Boca Raton, Palm Springs and Margate.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials estiproprietor mated that between March 2010 and June 2011, those clinics — along with other locations in Boynton Beach, Orlando and Orange Park — generated nearly $13.5 million by prescribing and selling oxycodone to people without proper reasons, according to court records.

Officials said the clinics dispensed just over 2 million 30 mg oxycodone pills to customers before a statewide drug task force