Former Paintsville Doctor Admits Role In Pill Mill That Illegally Dispensed 25,000 Prescription Pills

LEXINGTON, KY -A former doctor in Paintsville, Ky., was sentenced to 48 months in prison on Thursday, for his role in a conspiracy that was responsible for illegally distributing more than 25,000 prescription pills in Eastern Kentucky.

U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar sentenced Rano Bofill, 72, for conspiracy to unlawfully dispense Oxycodone. Judge Thapar also ordered that Bofill pay $15,000 in community restitution to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Under federal law, Bofill will have to serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence.

According to court documents, from January 2009 until December 2012, Bofill conspired with Tammy Cantrell and Shelby Lackey, owners of Care More Pain Management, LLC, located in Johnson County, to distribute thousands of Oxycodone pills to patients without a legitimate medical purpose.

Bofill acknowledged that he wrote prescriptions for numerous patients after performing little to no examination and, in some instances, he even signed off on prescriptions without actually ever seeing the patients. Patients who visited the clinic paid $200 for the initial visit and $185 for subsequent visits; all fees were paid in cash. Bofill admitted he saw approximately 25 patients per day and was paid between $5,000 and $6,000 per week.

For their part in the conspiracy, Lackey and Cantrell received sentences of 97 and 108 months respectively. At the time of their guilty pleas, in April 2013, Cantrell and Lackey were the first pain clinic owners in the Eastern District of Kentucky to have federal convictions for illegally distributing prescription drugs. Another doctor at the clinic, Richard Albert, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in July 2012; he was sentenced to 75 months in prison. Albert, Cantrell, and Lackey have collectively agreed to forfeit approximately $, 128,206 as proceeds of the conspiracy.

The investigation into this case started when detectives with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office received complaints, from local law enforcement, that Care More was seeing a remarkably high volume of patients. Court records state that patient lines at Care More stretched into the parking lot.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; James V. Allen, Acting Special Agent in Charge, DEA; and Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General, jointly announced today’s plea.

The investigation was conducted by the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, the DEA, and the Paintsville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West prosecuted this case on behalf of the federal government.