UWS Doctor, Wife Ran Oxycodone Pill Mill, Prosecutors Say

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An Upper West Side doctor and his wife, who managed his practice, were convicted Monday of turning their medical office into a pill mill for oxycodone prescriptions, the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office said.

Dr. Rogelio Lucas and his wife Lydia Lucas were convicted on one count of fourth-degree conspiracy and 29 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance, prosecutors said. The doctor and his wife ran their medical office out of 215 W. 101st St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.

Lucas became a licensed internist in 1972 and offered legitimate medical services up until 2009, prosecutors said. Prior to 2009, Lucas' practice offered primary care services and his practice catered to elderly patients.

From Jan. 2, 2009 through May 13, 2015, the practice underwent a transformation into an illegal pill mill, where prescriptions for the opiate oxycodone were exchanged for cash, prosecutors said. Rogerio and Lydia Lucas were arrested in 2015 after a court-authorized review of Dr. LUCAS’s prescribing history revealed he wrote about 45 to 50 oxycodone prescriptions per day at the height of the practice's illegal activity.

Searches of the Upper West Side medical office and homes in Manhattan and Scarsdale, New York resulted in the seizure of $680,000 in cash and record that indicated the couple deposited $500,000 in cash into multiple bank accounts in just one year.

Office visits that resulted in an oxycodone prescription cost $120 cash, prosecutors said. While the practice accepted health insurance, a sign in the office warned that any payments made through insurance would not result in the prescription of oxycodone.

Patients who tested negative for the drug — indicating they did not use the pills — were still provided prescriptions during office visits, prosecutors said. Once the prescriptions were filled, the pills ended up being sold on the street.

"As today’s verdict makes clear, doctors and medical personnel who use their special privileges to illegally distribute addictive drugs for no medical reason will be judged by same standards as street dealers," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement. "Dr. Rogelio Lucas and his wife Lydia reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling prescriptions for $120 per visit."