FREDERICKSBURG, Va.: A Stafford County doctor has been charged with 95 felony counts, including involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient.
Media outlets report that Dr. Nibedita Mohanty, 54, was arrested for allegedly prescribing tens of thousands of doses of narcotics to addicts and drug traffickers. Along with the manslaughter count, she faces 72 counts of felony distribution of narcotics and 22 counts of obtaining money by false pretenses through insurance fraud.
Mohanty, the former chief of medicine at Stafford Hospital, was being held in Rappahannock Regional Jail. An initial court appearance has not been set.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that the manslaughter charge stems from an overdose death “directly related to Mohanty’s practice of over prescribing pain narcotics.” The release offered no further details.
According to state Board of Medicine documents, Mohanty allegedly prescribed thousands of doses of narcotics to a 41-year-old patient who died two years ago despite indications the patient was abusing pills or had become addicted. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the records show the patient, who had been admitted to a hospital for a drug overdose two weeks earlier, died of “acute combined oxycodone and (an antidepressant) toxicity.”
Authorities began investigating Mohanty’s practice in 2011. The Free Lance-Star says Mohanty and her attorney, Charles Roberts, denied any wrongdoing in a letter to the newspaper in March.
Mohanty’s home and office were raided in January, and her medical license was suspended on an emergency basis in April.
In affidavits for search warrants filed in Stafford Circuit Court, Mohanty was accused of operating a “pill mill” and her medical practice was described as a haven for drug abusers and dealers. Police claim they identified 46 people who were prescribed drugs by Mohanty that were involved in trafficking prescription drugs. The FBI and the DEA have assisted Stafford authorities in the probe.
One informant told police he went to Mohanty at the suggestion of a friend who told him she would prescribe anything for $250. -AP
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