Adams hit with more charges
Philipsburg doctor now faces 55 drug counts
By Pete Bosak
- pbosak@centredaily.comBELLEFONTE — A third set of criminal charges against a Philipsburg doctor accused of over-prescribing narcotic painkillers to drug-addicted patients were ordered held for court Wednesday after a four-hour preliminary hearing.
Two felony and four misdemeanor counts were added to the 49 charges already filed against Dr. Larry Adams, 48, of 100 Hillcrest St., Philipsburg. The charges stem from a statewide grand jury investigation that found he prescribed narcotics to drug-dependent people in exchange for money and favors.
These latest charges allege that from March 2004 and May 2007 that Adams prescribed painkillers, including OxyContin, to two men who testified Wednesday with guarantees of immunity from the state Attorney General’s Office.
The men said they abused the painkillers, sometimes grinding up OxyContin and snorting it, and told how Adams wrote prescription after prescription while asking them to do a favor for him once in a while. Most often, it was fetching cars Adams purchased on eBay for restoration, one of them testified.
Michael Speed testified Adams was treating him for severe back problems. He received prescriptions, when he needed them, for OxyContin, Dilaudid and Fentanyl, he said.
At one point, Speed said Adams dropped him as a patient when his urine tested positive for marijuana and cocaine. But he eventually wound up back under Adams’ care, he said.
“I offered to haul cars for him,” Speed said.
Adams’ attorney, Robert Fogelnest, grilled Speed on why he was given immunity. Speed said a state police trooper working Adams’ case told him they had him under surveillance and saw him selling some of the pills he got from Adams.
“And I admitted to selling some of my pills,” Speed said. “I was just being honest with him.”
Fogelnest later asked Centre County District Judge Thomas Jordan to dismiss the charges.
“It’s outrageous,” Fogelnest said. “One of (the witnesses) sells his drugs 20 to 30 times and he gets a complete walk. Go and sell your drugs on the street. We’d rather get a doctor.”
Testifying, in state Department of Corrections garb and shackles, was Joseph Hunter, another patient of Adams who said he was able to get prescriptions for painkillers as long as he was doing favors for the doctor.
Hunter is in state prison for violating his probation on a DUI and theft conviction. He too was given immunity by the state’s Attorney General’s Office for his testimony, which included admitting he sold some of the medication Adams prescribed.
Hunter said at one point, Adams asked him whether he was selling his prescriptions. Hunter said he lied to Adams.
“When I was walking out of the room he said, ‘Don’t get caught,’ ” Hunter said.
Attorney General’s Office Agent Sherri Cramer studied Adams’ medical records on the two men and said they were prescribed far and above an amount acceptable to standard medical practices. At one point, Speed was given what should have been a 10-month supply of narcotic painkillers in only six months time, Cramer said.
Hunter, in November 2005, was given an amount that should have covered nearly seven months, she said.
Jordan bound over charges of prescribing outside accepted treatment principles, dispensing or prescribing to a drug-dependent person and refusal or failure to keep required records.
Pete Bosak can be reached at 235-3928.