Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Jury convicts in 11 felonies
Man guilty of running oxycodone ‘pill mill’ at several pain clinics in South Florida
Richard McMillan refused to take a plea offer of 10 years in prison, opting to fight 11 felony charges connected to what prosecutors labeled a “pill mill” operation. But after a two-week trial, a Palm Beach County jury on Wednesday found the 45-year-old Boca Raton man guilty on all counts, rejecting his defense that it was a legitimate pain clinic network before a 2011 raid by a statewide drug task force.
“Despite facing a lifetime in prison, Mr. McMillan chose to have his day in court to prove he was not running a pill mill,” said Guy Fronstin, one of his attorneys.
“We respect the jury’s verdict but are disappointed that after reviewing the evidence it did not conclude McMillan complied with all laws and that his pain clinics provided proper medical care,” Fronstin added after the verdict, reached after about nine hours of deliberations.
Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo said McMillan will be sentenced Feb. 27 on the convictions of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and nine counts of trafficking in oxycodone.
McMillan, a divorced father of two, faces up to 330 years in prison and a minimum of 25 years, if terms for all the charges run at the same time. He was taken into custody by courtroom deputies and brought to Palm Beach County Jail to await his fate.
McMillan and his business partner, Pasquale Gervasio, formerly of Parkland, ran Total Medical Express clinics in Boca Raton, Palm Springs and Margate before authorities stepped in.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials have calculated 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 legitimate medical reasons, according to court records.
Officials said the clinics sold more than 2 million 30 mg oxycodone pills to customers before the crackdown, called “Operation Blue Spoon.”
Faced with what they called an epidemic of pill mills, Florida legislators passed laws requiring stricter enforcement of pain clinics and a statewide drug-monitoring database.
“This was anything but a pill mill,” Marc Nurik, who also represented McMillan, told the jury. “In an effort to get rid of the bad, the pill mills, the state, instead of using a scalpel, used a meat cleaver and shut down these clinics without properly investigating.”
But Assistant State Attorneys Chris Hudock and Adriana Lopez said the evidence left no doubt why the clinics were in business.
Customers usually paid $200 or $300 in cash or with credit payments to see doctors on staff. Oxycodone pills, sold for $5 or $6 each, were dispensed from an in-house pharmacy, the prosecutors said.
“The primary purpose is to maximize the number of patients that were seen, the number of prescriptions that were written, and the amount of oxycodone that was sold,” Hudock said.
One of the key witnesses for the prosecution was the co-defendant, Gervasio, 40, who has pleaded guilty to one federal count of money laundering conspiracy, and four state felonies, including racketeering.
Gervasio, now living in New Jersey, hopes his maximum 10-year sentence will be cut in half because of his testimony that the clinic business, once called Palm Beach Pain & Rejuvenation, was a front to unload as many pain pills as possible.
“We didn’t want to turn down the revenue,” he said of tactics calling for customers to see doctors for just five minutes and walk out with prescriptions for as many pills as possible.
McMillan’s attorneys called Gervasio a liar trying to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. McMillan took the stand in his own defense Monday, and said he relied on the 17 doctors to do the right thing.
NcMillan, a former debt consolidator and mortgage agent, also told the jurors all income from the business was properly reported on tax returns.
The defense also challenged the allegations that patients of the clinics were given pills no questions asked. Nurik and Fronstin say the clinic files show that 1,274 patients, out of a total of 11,259, were discharged without being treated.
“Patients had to provide evidence of some form of medical problem or injury,” Nurik explained at the start of the trial. “This was not a situation where someone came in, and the doctor just said, ‘Hey, hi, here’s your oxycodone,’ and left.”