Physician, clinic owner sentenced for $5M ‘pill mill’ scheme

A physician and a man with whom he co-owned clinics were sentenced to 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances.

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Dr. Jonathan Rosenfield, 40, of Atlanta, and Elmer Taylor, 44, of Houston, co-owned and operated Sunnyside Medical, a group of medical clinics in Houston, according to a Nov. 16 news release from the Justice Department. Dr. Rosenfield, Mr. Taylor and their co-conspirators issued prescriptions for opioids, including approximately 752,000 pills of oxycodone and 419,000 pills of hydrocodone, under Dr. Rosenfield’s name, outside the usual course of practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. 

The prescriptions often were issued to individuals paid by drug dealers to pose as patients, and from May 2018 to August 2019, the clinic earned approximately $5,478,000 from the sale of illegal prescription drugs, according to the release.

Their co-defendants Sokari Bobmanuel and Alantha Stewart were previously sentenced to 14 and 10 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.

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