Exeter doctor faces trial on ‘pill mill’ charges
An Exeter Township doctor accused of operating a “pill mill” waived a preliminary hearing Thursday, Oct. 24, in an appearance before District Judge Sandra L. Fegley.
The case now moves to Berks County Court of Common Pleas, where Dr. Robert W. Schorschinsky faces a trial.
In September, Dr. Schorschinsky was charged with recklessly prescribing pain pills.
He faces 20 counts of prescribing controlled substances outside accepted treatment principles and three counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud or subterfuge.
Schorschinsky, who practices at Penn Family Medicine in Exeter Township, appeared before Fegley with his lawyer, Jay M. Nigrini of Reading.
He remains free on $250,000 unsecured bail.
District Attorney John T. Adams brought charges against Schorschinsky after a two-year investigation into Schorschinsky’s medical practice.
The investigation began,
Adams said, when Berks County probation officers found a pre-signed prescription pad when conducting a home visit of a client.
Reading police, Berks County detectives and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office launched a broader investigation.
Two of Schorschinsky’s office staff — Heather Bailey, 35, of Bethel Township and Stacey Delvalle, 30, of Robesonia — were subsequently charged with fraudulently obtaining and distribution of prescription pills. Delvalle’s husband, Jorge Soler Jr., 39, was also charged.
According to a criminal complaint, Soler would forge prescriptions using fictitious names on prescription forms Schorschinsky had pre-signed. They would take the fraudulent prescriptions to local pharmacies and have them filled. The Pennsylvania Legislature, responding to a worsening opioid epidemic, passed the state’s first prescription drug monitoring program in 2017. Doctors can be charged with operating a reckless practice under