Tennessee doctor to plead guilty after 5 patients died
Feds: Rinehart ‘routinely’ prescribed opioids
A longtime Tennessee doctor who had five patients die of fatal overdoses in less than a year intends to plead guilty to a federal drug crime.
Dr. Darrel Rinehart, 64, who ran a clinic in Columbia, Tennessee, for decades, was indicted on 19 counts of distribution of a control substance in March. His attorneys last week filed a motion asking for a court hearing in December at which “intends to plead guilty.”
One of Rinehart’s attorneys, James Simmons, said Monday that Rinehart would confess to at least one count of drug distribution. Simmons said the decision to plead guilty came after Rinehart’s legal team examined the discovery provided by prosecutors, but declined to speak in detail about the case.
“Obviously, he wouldn’t be entering a plea if we didn’t feel that was an appropriate resolution to the case,” Simmons said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal indictment against Rinehart states that he “routinely” prescribed opioids and other drugs “without legitimate medical purpose” and that four patients died while in his care.
In January, Rinehart was also the subject of a joint investigation by The Tennessean and The Indianapolis Star. State health records showed at least five of Rinehart’s patients suffered fatal overdoses that were partially or wholly caused by drugs he prescribed between March 2015 and January 2016.
At least six more Rinehart patients had nonfatal overdoses between 2014 and 2016, and one of those patients overdosed three times, state health records showed.
When asked to defend his prescriptions to state health officials, Rinehart said he was ignorant of safe prescribing law and too trusting of his patients.
“You always want to do what you could to help people,” Rinehart told a state medical board.
“And, yes, sometimes, people tell you things, you believe them, you trust them, you know them, but you know they’re not always honest. … That certainly has altered the way I practice medicine now.”
Rinehart worked for at least two decades at Core Physicians, also known as Family Health Group, a clinic in Columbia, Tennessee. The clinic was purchased by Maury Regional Hospital in 2015, and the new owners were among the first to take issue with Rinehart’s prescriptions.
After his prescriptions were questioned, Rinehart relocated to Indiana and worked at least two hospitals. The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners agreed to suspend but not revoke Rinehart’s medical license if he agreed not to attempt to practice medicine in Tennessee ever again.
Rinehart was also criminally investigated by police and prosecutors in Maury County, who used an informant to capture undercover video footage inside his clinic. But the local case never reached prosecution.
Maury County District Attorney Brent Cooper said earlier this year that his office intended to charge Rinehart with five counts of criminal homicide but instead gave the case to prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office who became interested in Rinehart after reading about him in The Tennessean.
Cooper said he believed federal prosecutors could pursue a stronger case with harsher punishment.
When asked to defend his prescriptions to state health officials, Rinehart said he was ignorant of safe prescribing law and too trusting of his patients.