TWO DOCTORS ARRESTED IN PRESCRIPTION DRUG FRAUD PROBE

September 28, 2010
For immediate release
Contacts:
Gary Davidson, Public Information Officer, Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (386-736-5989)
David    Melenkevitz, Special Agent – Public Information Officer, DEA Miami Field Division (954-660-4602)
Heather Smith, Keith Kameg or Mike Morrison, FDLE PIO Office, (850-410-7021)

Drug agents arrested a Central Florida doctor and his office manager Tuesday morning and closed down their two clinics, accusing the pair of operating a pill mill where virtually unlimited amounts of prescription narcotics were routinely dispensed to anyone who walked through their doors. Tuesday’s arrest of Dr. Ralph Chambers, Jr. along with his business manager and the practice’s counselor, Dr. Neil Stringer, capped off a massive, five-year investigation prompted by numerous complaints from patients as well as pharmacists alarmed at the volume of drugs being prescribed by Dr. Chambers. Agents also have filed charges against 10 of Dr. Chambers’ patients, the culmination of an investigation dubbed Operation Script Writer that was launched in May 2005. The multi-agency Volusia Bureau of Investigation initially launched Operation Script Writer, in part due to concerns following the drug overdose deaths of several of Dr. Chambers’ patients. A few months later, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Department of Health and the Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit joined in the investigation.

Agents said operations at the New Hope Health & Wellness center in Orange City and the New Hope Family Care center in Sanford showed the classic signs of a virtual pill mill. The centers accepted either cash only or Dr. Chambers would file Medicaid claims. Patients who complained of pain were barely examined or not examined at all before large doses of powerful narcotics -- most frequently Oxycodone -- were prescribed. Oxycodone is a heavily-abused narcotic pain reliever that has been determined to be a contributing cause in many fatal drug overdoses. Agents raided the clinic offices last year along with two pharmacies and seized patient records as part of the investigation. On Tuesday, the Florida Attorney General’s Office ordered the Orange City and Sanford clinics to close.

A board-certified internist from Ohio who also is an associate clinical professor of medicine and an expert on pain management, addiction and controlled drug prescribing who was brought in to review the clinical records concluded that most of Dr. Chambers’ prescriptions were issued for illegitimate and non-medical reasons. “This is dangerous, and demonstrates clinically reckless disregard for the health and safety of the patient,” the doctor concluded. After reviewing one patient’s file, he told investigators: “If medications taken as directed, there are several times in the course of this patient’s management where the prescribed medications should have threatened the health, and even life of the patient.”

Agents also interviewed numerous pharmacists where Dr. Chambers’ patients went to get their prescriptions filled. One said he believed that Dr. Chambers was creating drug addicts. After the pharmacist started calling Dr. Chambers’ office regularly to verify prescriptions, patients said that the doctor told them to find another pharmacy. At just two pharmacies in Sanford, Discount Rx and Tru-Valu Drugs, Dr. Chambers issued prescriptions for more than 190,000 pills in a three-month period. While there were other narcotics involved, Oxycodone was by far the most frequently-prescribed drug.

During the course of the investigation, agents also sent confidential informants to Dr. Chambers eight different times to see how easy it was to obtain a prescription. In some cases, Dr. Chambers never examined them, or just had assistants conduct cursory exams by weighing the patients and taking their blood pressure before the doctor wrote the prescriptions. In one case, an informant claimed to have pulled a back muscle and was no longer experiencing pain, but liked the effects of the drugs. Dr. Chambers gave the informant another prescription. Often, the prescriptions were for 200 or more pills a month. One patient told investigators that Dr. Chambers said he was prescribing the maximum amount allowed and suggested the patient get pills on the street if she needed more. The patient said she attempted to commit suicide with her prescription medicine and then went to see Dr. Chambers the day she was released from a detoxification program and that he prescribed more pills, but the pharmacy refused to fill the prescription. Another patient said she asked Dr. Chambers for a sleep aid for her grandmother and that the doctor wrote out the prescription on the spot without seeing, talking to or examining the grandmother. And yet another patient said that when she told Dr. Chambers she was running out of pills before she was supposed to, the doctor increased the number of pills for the next prescription refill. Additionally, investigators who ran background checks on some of Dr. Chambers’ patients discovered that many had been arrested before on drug charges.

Dr. Chambers, age 61, and Dr. Stringer, age 51, were arrested Tuesday morning at the Sanford clinic. The following seven people also are in custody in connection with the investigation:

Ø       Craig Anderson, 36, New Smyrna Beach
Ø       Jeanette Carman, 51, Ormond Beach
Ø       Jeannine Madden, 43, Ormond Beach
Ø       Scott Mehalko, 29, Deltona
Ø       Tara Otway, 38, Deltona
Ø       Connie Wood, 37, currently incarcerated
Ø       Timothy Williamson, 39, currently incarcerated

All of the defendants have been charged with conspiracy to traffic in opiates 28 grams or more. Additionally, Dr. Chambers is charged with Medicaid fraud. Meanwhile, agents have warrants for three more patients who are being charged in the investigation.

VBI is a multi-agency task force that pools resources from 10 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in order to target mid- and upper-level narcotics traffickers as well as racketeering and organized crime. Participating agencies include the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Attorney’s General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, Daytona Beach Police Department, Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety, DeLand Police Department, Port Orange Police Department, New Smyrna Beach Police Department, the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. VBI also is part of the Central Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, which is a multi-agency task force established by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy to combat drug trafficking along the seven-county area hugging Central Florida’s I-4 corridor.

Anyone with additional information about this case is asked to call VBI at (386) 274-3470.

Update: 09/30/10 - 4:30 p.m.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the final three defendants in this case. The warrants charge all three with conspiracy to traffic in opiates 28 grams or more. All three are still at-large and are being sought by law enforcement. Their names are as follows:

Sherwood Christopher Hewett, 45, The Villages
Christopher Dale Rickman, 37, Orange City
Michael David Stewart, 25, DeLand

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the defendants is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida, toll-free, at (888) 277-TIPS. Residents can also text a tip by texting “TIP231 plus the message” to CRIMES. Tipsters who provide information to Crime Stoppers will remain anonymous and can qualify for a reward of up to $1,000. Anyone who prefers to talk directly to a law enforcement officer can call the Volusia Bureau of Investigation at (386) 274-3470. However, only callers to Crime Stoppers will qualify for a reward.