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Dr. Bernard Shelton
A St. Clair Shores doctor, who ran a "pill mill," has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for illegally prescribing drugs that resulted in a fatal overdose in 2016, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday.
Dr. Bernard Shelton, 67, was also convicted of 21 counts of illegally distributing powerful prescription pain killers to seven people for no legitimate purpose. He collected $1.4 million from Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross/Blue Shield during that time.
In the case of the fatal overdose, the doctor in 2010 began prescribing an opioid pain reliever to a 54-year-old patient whose pain was previously treated by prescription strength Motrin, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Shelton prescribed increasingly stronger drugs over the next six years and the patient became addicted. In January 2016, he prescribed an increased dosage of oxycodone to the patient without medical justification, authorities alleged.
Two days later, the patient overdosed and survived. A second oxycodone overdose four days later was fatal.
Authorities allege that Shelton also contributed to the overdose deaths of two other patients.
From April 2013 to December 2016, he prescribed over 5.5 million doses of controlled substances. In 2017, he was no longer allowed to prescribe controlled substances.
Authorities said an undercover patient made an initial visit to Shelton complaining of back
stiffness, he did not examine the patient’s back, but instead asked, “What can I give you today? He then prescribed the requested narcotics.
“This defendant violated his oath to do no harm to his patients," Detroit U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in a statement. "He prescribed drugs without any medical justification in order to line his own pockets. His actions caused the death of at least one person and contributed to the deaths of two others."
