Former Kentucky city council member gets prison sentence in drug trafficking case
A longtime city council member in Kentucky who pleaded guilty in a drug case has been sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison.
Calvin Manis, 74, was a city council member in Barbourville for 28 years and operated a pharmacy. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally distribute drugs. Manis admitted filling prescriptions for pain pills, or having employees fill them, despite knowing the drugs would be sold illegally.
Manis was charged in the case with John Pasternak, a Barbourville man who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute drugs.
Pasternak “sponsored” people in order to get drugs to sell, paying the costs for them to see doctors and the cost of filling the prescriptions at Manis’ Parkway Pharmacy.
The people he sponsored — often people with substance use disorder — gave Pasternak some of the drugs they got so that he could sell them, or sold drugs and gave him some of the money, according to his plea agreement.
Manis said in his plea agreement that Pasternak “frequently communicated” with him about filling prescriptions for people Pasternak was sponsoring.
At times, Pasternak took prescriptions written to other people and filled them at Manis’ pharmacy.
The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Smith, said in a sentencing memo that while all drug trafficking is a problem, Manis’ conduct was especially egregious because of his position.
“Pharmacists play a critical role in protecting against the unlawful proliferation of addictive controlled substances, especially opioid painkillers,” the memo said. “Pharmacists should act as gatekeepers, not enablers.”
Manis acknowledged being part of the conspiracy from December 2015 through August 2019.
His plea agreement said he agreed to forfeit his pharmacy to the government, which was valued in Knox County property records at $425,000, and to not contest federal authorities’ seizure of $216,764 in the pharmacy’s bank account.
Manis had been in custody since March 2021 before being sentenced.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier sentenced Manis and Pasternak this week. Pasternak received a sentence of four years and seven months.
Several doctors from clinics in Tennessee have been charged in federal court in Kentucky in related cases for allegedly writing improper prescriptions that were filled at Manis’ pharmacy.
