Melody Thorton: Greensburg doctor headed to federal prison in drugs-for-sex case

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Greensburg doctor headed to federal prison in drugs-for-sex case

A Greensburg doctor who described prescription pain narcotics as “candy” is headed to federal prison for 41 months following his conviction for doling out drugs to a female addict in exchange for sex, sometimes in his office.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed that term Friday on Milad Shaker, 49, and also ordered him to pay a $15,000 fine.

She revoked his bond after the hearing and U.S. marshals took him into custody.

A federal jury in October convicted Shaker on 14 of 56 counts pertaining to illegal drug distribution.

The FBI said that from October 2015 through March 2017, Shaker dispensed hydrocodone, percoset and tramadol to a Fayette County woman in exchange for sex and sexual photos and texts. The two hooked up at hotels in Westmoreland and Fayette counties, sometimes in a car on the side of the road or in Shaker’s office.

He had told her that “opioids are like candy” and said they wouldn’t hurt her.

She said they did hurt her, leading her to develop a cocaine addiction and end up living in a crack house.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Cessar, who heads a U.S. attorney’s unit that pursues rogue doctors across this district, said Shaker was a drug dealer.

“[Shaker] had the prescription pad, the pen, and all the power to prescribe [name redacted] highly addictive Schedule II and Schedule IV controlled substances, and he abused that power for his own sexual gratification,” Mr. Cessar wrote in arguing for serious prison time. “[Shaker] was instrumental in leading Ms. [redacted] to becoming addicted to his prescriptions. Instead of helping her, [he] used that addiction to extort sex and sexually explicit photographs from her.”

The woman testified at trial but the Post-Gazette does not name the victims in crimes involving sex.

Shaker, who ran family practice and urgent care clinics in Donegal and Mount Pleasant, had been indicted initially in the fall of 2018 on 54 counts of unlawful distribution in exchange for sex or sexual messaging by text. One count involved health care fraud in that prosecutors said he caused fraudulent claims to be submitted to Highmark and Aetna to cover costs for the pills.

The grand jury later added two new counts of witness tampering and lying to the FBI.

The grand jury said he distributed pills in exchange for sex or text messages from two women, “B.S.” and “T.S.”

He was also accused of lying to agents on Dec. 5, 2017, by saying he had sex only with T.S. and of trying the next day to convince B.S. to delete incriminating texts about their relationship from her phone.

The trial jury found him guilty of 14 counts pertaining to illegal pill distribution only for T.S. Jurors acquitted him on the other similar counts and also on the counts of health care fraud, witness tampering and lying to agents.

In regard to T.S., Mr. Cessar said Shaker showed a “callous indifference” to the opioid crisis to which he contributed and preyed on the woman’s vulnerability.

Among the government’s witnesses were her parents, who said they told the doctor in 2016 that she was an addict and to stop giving her drugs. He said he would stop but didn’t, prosecutors said.

Shaker and his lawyer, Chris Capozzi, argued that the jury actually rejected the government’s “sex for prescriptions theory,” finding him not guilty on charges involving B.S. and most of the counts pertaining to T.S.

They said Shaker was indeed having sex with T.S., but that he was prescribing her the drugs for legitimate medical need, not for her sexual services.

“It is not disputed that Dr. Shaker and T.S. had an intimate relationship, but this relationship is not relevant to sentencing,” Mr. Capozzi said in court papers. “Also, while it is possible T.S. was having sex with Dr. Shaker for the purposes of obtaining prescriptions, he was not treating her (or prescribing controlled substances) in exchange for sex; he was treating as a result of her complaints of pain and a medical history demonstrating she had in fact suffered pain-inducing injuries.”

Last month, however, the judge sided with the government. In denying a motion for acquittal, she said she doesn’t believe any miscarriage of justice occurred in the trial or that an innocent person has been convicted.

At Friday’s sentencing, she said, “Dr. Shaker, you have abused your position as a doctor, a trusted healer, by feeding the addiction of a vulnerable woman for your personal gratification. Your actions, and your utter failure to appreciate your wrongdoing, particularly amid the opioid crisis in America, and, indeed, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, are troubling.”