Ohio doctor sentenced for two drug-related felonies

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that Dr. Robert Timothy Hogan II, 33, of Coolsville, Ohio, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

On Oct. 15, 2014, Hogan pleaded guilty to traveling in interstate commerce and using a communications device to facilitate a felony.

“It’s appalling that a licensed physician would pump illegal pills into our communities like this,” Goodwin said. “Every time we put a law-breaking doctor out of business is a big step toward getting this problem under control.”

Hogan admitted to traveling between Athens County, Ohio, and Wood County, West Virginia, and using his cellphone to facilitate an arrangement in which he wrote prescriptions for controlled substances to an individual who was not his patient, and for which there was no legitimate medical purpose for receiving half the pills after the prescriptions were filled. He wrote more than 160 illegal prescriptions, for more than 17,000 pills between January 2013 and February 2014.

United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. imposed the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the West Virginia State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Steven Loew handled the prosecution of this case.

The case is being prosecuted as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill and heroin trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.