Odessa Physician Enters Guilty Plea In Connection With A Methamphetamine Distribution And Fraudulent Prescription Scheme

In Midland, 59–year-old Odessa physician Barrett Doyle Whitefield, faces a mandatory minimum ten-year federal prison term after pleading guilty this morning to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and distribute controlled substances, announced United States Attorney Robert Pitman and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit. 

By pleading guilty, Whitefield admitted that from late 2011, to July 19, 2012, when Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Midland Police Department Narcotics Detectives executed a search warrant at his medical office in Odessa, he wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone to numerous individuals upon request, without examining them, and on some occasions for individuals whom he never saw as patients.  Whitefield further admitted that he was aware his co-defendants were selling the hydrocodone pills to other individuals in the Midland/Odessa area.  Additionally, Whitefield admitted that he delivered a package of methamphetamine to an individual in Lamesa, TX, at the direction of his co-defendants.

Also this morning, Whitefield’s codefendants, Christina Rene Barfield, Megan Lynn Maner, and Cynthia Marie Constanzo, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge.  By pleading guilty, Barfield admitted to directing co-defendants to sell hydrocodone and methamphetamine; Maner and Constanzo, to distributing hydrocodone and methamphetamine.  Yesterday, co-defendant Cody Wayne Hearn entered a guilty plea to the conspiracy charge and admitted that he filled fraudulent hydrocodone and Xanax prescriptions written by Whitefield and distributed methamphetamine at the direction of Barfield.  After pleading guilty, Barfield, Maner, Constanzo and Hearn each face a mandatory minimum of ten years in federal prison.  No sentencing dates have been scheduled.

Jury selection for the three remaining co-defendants, Robert Michael Handlon, Matthew Christian Woodside, and Amanda Leigh Glenn, is scheduled for 8:30am on February 11, 2013.  All face the same conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute controlled substances charge.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Midland Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Brandi Young is prosecuting the case on behalf of the Government.