Doctors charged in overdose deaths
A federal grand jury has indicted two Sayre doctors in the overdose deaths of five patients.
Melvin Lee Robison, 63, and Moheb Hallaba, 89, both are charged with drug conspiracy and five counts of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death. They also face dozens of counts of distribution of a controlled substance.
Oklahoma City federal prosecutors announced the charge Thursday during a news conference about the formation of the Western Oklahoma Opioid Enforcement Team.
“Our goal is clear, combine the expertise and the resources of both state and federal investigators and prosecutors,” Acting U.S. Attorney Robert Troester told news reporters. “Target, prosecute and stop those responsible for the illegal distribution of these addictive and potentially deadly drugs.”
Troester noted 115 people die every day in the U.S. from overdosing on opioids.
“We are facing one of the deadliest drug epidemics our nation has seen,” Troester said. “The misuse of and addiction to opioids, including prescription pain relievers and synthetic opioids like fentanyl, is a serious national
crisis that affects public health, as well as social and economic welfare.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter also spoke during the news conference, calling the doctors “drug dealers.”
“I have no doubt that together we can stop this epidemic,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s office is prosecuting a Midwest City doctor in the overdose deaths of five patients. That murder case is pending.
Hunter also has sued more than a dozen opioid manufacturers on behalf of the state.
Indictment
Robison and Hallaba signed hundreds of prescriptions a week without reviewing patient files or even seeing the patients, grand jurors allege. They also ignored urinalysis screenings of patients that showed aberrant drug behavior, according to the indictment.
The drug distribution was “outside the usual course of professional medical practice and without legitimate medical purpose,” grand jurors allege. The doctors prescribed large amounts of opioids with benzodiazepines, which increases the risk of lethal overdose when taken together, according to the indictment.
The alleged drug conspiracy and overdose deaths occurred between September 2015 and April 2017. Both doctors worked at Robison Clinic in Sayre in western Oklahoma.
The five victims were not identified in the indictment, which was unsealed this week.
Robison is an osteopathic physician. Hallaba is a medical doctor, records show.
Robison hired Hallaba in 2015 to write prescriptions at the clinic. In 2016, the Oklahoma State Board of Osteopathic Examiners banned Robison from writing prescriptions, according to the indictment.
Robison also is charged with 104 counts of health care fraud, accused of submitting false Medicare claims for services he did not personally render.
2nd indictment
Also Thursday, federal prosecutors announced the unsealing of another indictment, charging a doctor, a pharmacist and a business owner with dozens of counts of distribution of a controlled substance.
The alleged offenses occurred from September 2015 to December 2015. The doctor, James M. Ferris, was employed by Sherry Isbell, who owned a medical clinic in Wellston, according to the indictment.
Isbell, 48, also owned Physicians At Home, a Wellston business that sends health care providers to patients’ homes.
Ferris, 44, of Midwest City, is accused of signing stacks of blank prescription pads and giving them to pharmacist Katherine Dossey, 49, of Wellston.
Isbell gave patient records to Dossey, who then filled patients’ prescriptions using the pads pre-signed by Ferris, according to the indictment. Dossey refilled the patients’ prescriptions as a “standing order” without request by the patients, grand jurors allege.
All three also are charged with dozens of counts of health care fraud, accused of submitting false claims to Medicare for reimbursement of invalid prescriptions.