Ex-doctor shot in apparent home invasion

The former owner of a South Side medical center that provided illegal prescriptions to hundreds of patients was shot during a home invasion Thursday in Plain Township.

Franklin County sheriff’s deputies responded to the 7900 block of Schleppi Road about 7 a.m. They found Kevin B. Lake in the first floor master bedroom with a gunshot wound. He was taken in critical condition to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, Maj. Steve Tucker said.

Lake’s 19-year-old son was upstairs when he called 911 and told the dispatcher that his father had heard someone breaking into the house. The son told the dispatcher that his father went downstairs, there were several gunshots and his father did not respond when he called down to him, Tucker said.

The family told authorities that Lake had recently received a written threat, but it had not been turned over to the sheriff’s office, Tucker said.

No motive for the home invasion has been determined, but Tucker said investigators will consider Lake’s history.

“I have a healthy degree of skepticism. I would be remiss if I didn’t entertain the possibility,” Tucker said. “We’ll see where the evidence leads.”

Lake was a former trustee for Ohio University who pleaded guilty in February to drug, tax and fraud charges and to providing illegal prescriptions to hundred of patients, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He is facing five years in prison.

He was found guilty of evading more than $3.5 million in taxes. He agreed to pay restrictions out of $29 million worth of earnings from his business Columbus Southern Medical Center and to forfeit the rest.

The state medical board permanently revoked Lake’s osteopathic medicine license in February.

Lake knew doctors and staff at the clinic were prescribing drugs including oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax to patients without a legitimate medical reason from 2006 to 2013. Hundreds of patients showed up at the clinic daily to receive prescriptions, the Justice Department said.

In 2010, the Drug Enforcement Agency started investigating the clinic, the same year former Gov. Ted Strickland appointed Lake to the OU board of trustees. He stepped down from the board on Jan. 21.

He also pleaded guilty to tax evasion on his personal income tax returns and to filing fraudulent tax returns for his corporations and trusts.

The 10-room house, which is more than 4,000 square feet, is worth more than $470,000, according to the Franklin County Auditor’s Office website.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was searching the house for evidence most of the day, and the sheriff’s office has obtained a search warrant to perform their own review of the scene, Tucker said.