tool name

Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008

Fla. doctor, 10 Kentuckians plead guilty in drug ring

A Florida doctor and 10 Kentuckians who were charged in an interstate prescription-pill ring have pleaded guilty, U.S. Attorney James Zerhusen announced Friday.

Roger Browne, 52, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., admitted people from northeastern Kentucky traveled to his South Florida pain-management clinic to get pills. Browne acknowledged he knew there was a high likelihood the people would illegally sell the pills back home.

Morehead resident Drew Evans Lane Jr., 32, admitted providing money to several other people to go to Browne's office and get pills containing oxycodone. That is the ingredient in OxyContin, a much-abused painkiller in Eastern Kentucky and elsewhere.

Lane also pleaded guilty to selling pills.

The others who pleaded guilty in the scheme were Rhonda Burchett; Seth Clay; James Clay; Janie Simmons; Herbert Euglindon; Pear Sue Drake; Charles Winthrow; Jason Todd Marshall; and Nick Sorrell.

All but Sorrell admitted they got pills from Browne and turned over at least some of them to others to sell, Zerhusen said in a news release.

The case is an example of what police have said is a growing problem with Kentucky residents going to doctors in other states to get prescriptions for painkillers, then selling the pills illegally back home.

The practice is on the rise because of enforcement and a computerized system for tracking prescriptions in Kentucky, police said.

Some states don't have such tracking systems.

When police searched Browne's office in April, they found about 500 files for patients from Boyd, Carter, Greenup, Elliott and Rowan counties, according to Browne's plea agreement.

Browne, Lane and the others who pleaded guilty are scheduled to be sentenced March 9, Zerhusen said in a news release. Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.