A Luzerne County doctor is facing a legal crucible as he's been slapped with a slew of felony charges for manipulating medical records to stealthily swipe fentanyl and Dilaudid, powerful opioids that can spell death when misused, Attorney General Michelle Henry revealed.
60-year old Richard Lemaster Hubbell, a once-revered anesthesiologist, found himself in handcuffs this week, charged with a whopping 32 felony counts for illicitly laying his hands on controlled substances while supposedly tending to patients in Berks and Columbia counties, according to the announcement from the attorney general's office.
The disgraced doc was hauled before a district court on Thursday, where a judge hammered down a $150,000 unsecured bail with a stern condition—he must be tethered to the law's reach by electronic monitoring, “No position of power or authority provides permission to break the law, and my office will fulfill its duty to protect the public without making exceptions for title or rank,” Attorney General Henry declared in a statement, signaling no mercy for the breach of trust and of oath.
In a raid of Hubbell’s place on Long Run Road in Drums, agents unearthed a startling stash; they snagged hundreds of vials and syringes, some brimming with the opioids, others spent, all evidence of a deep-seated deception, Hubbell, it's alleged, spun tall tales in the records, conjuring up patient treatments for those not even in need to justify his snatching of the narcotics while plying his trade at both Pennsylvania Eye and Ear Surgical Center in Berks County and Berwick Hospital in Columbia County.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Michelle Hardik will brandish the gavel of justice in the courtroom, wrestling with the mire of accusations that taint Hubbell—a man presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the scales of justice—but now very much in the hot seat for his alleged pharmaceutical pilfering spree.
