Two doctors from the Chicago suburbs have found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and the result is a stint in federal prison for their illicit dispensing of opioid prescriptions. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Stanley David Demorest of Bloomingdale, and Nicholas Recchia of River Grove ran an operation out of Demorest Consultants LLC in Melrose Park, Ill. The duo pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud after it was discovered they were handing out prescriptions for opioids without legitimate medical reasons from 2015 to 2020.
The plot thickened after Demorest, who had given up his right to prescribe controlled substances in 2015, resorted to using Recchia's credentials to continue their scheme. Recchia, 64, didn't get off easy as he'll serve six months in prison for his role. Demorest, 67, got a heftier sentence of two years after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to both healthcare fraud and the unlawful use of someone's DEA registration number.
This case has posed significant repercussions, touching on a critical issue in the United States: the opioid epidemic. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes highlighted the severity of the doctors’ offenses in the sentencing memorandum. “During a time of epidemic prescription opioid abuse, a trained physician is the last person that the public should expect to knowingly and intentionally issue unauthorized prescriptions for opioids,” Hayes argued, emphasizing that such violations by medical professionals must be met with stern consequences.
The sentences were handed down by U.S. District Judge John F. Kness on December 14th. The adjudication punctuates a national crisis where medical professionals, expected to heal, have instead contributed to the pain. The sentences were announced by a cohort of officials, including the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Morris Pasqual, and representatives from the DEA, FBI, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
