Nurse Practitioner Convicted Of Running Pill Mill On LI Gets 9 To 19 Years In Prison
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Long Island nurse practitioner convicted of operating one of the largest pill mills on eastern Long Island was sentenced on Tuesday.
Nine to 19 years in prison is the sentence for Ingrid Gordon-Patterson for operating what authorities called a multi-million dollar pill mill from a pain management clinic in Deer Park.
Nurse Practitioner Convicted Of Running Pill Mill On Long Island Faces Sentencing
The 49-year-old dubbed the "painkiller peddler" illegally prescribed more than 400,000 Oxycodone pills with a street value of over $6 million between June 2011 and June 2012, prosecutors said. She wrote more than 1,200 prescriptions for 30-milligram tablets during that period from her Deer Park office, prosecutors said.
"She is a drug dealer who sold prescriptions for a powerful habit-forming narcotic for cash," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said in a statement. "She used a pen and prescription pad to make enormous sums of cash over the span of one year, an estimated $1 million paid to her by addicts and dealers who resold the Oxycodone pills."
Gordon-Patterson made an emotional plea with the judge for probation, WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs reported. The judge, however, denied the request and scolded her for being in a state of denial.
Assistant District Attorney Diane Conjero was satisfied with the sentence.
"Like any drug arrest, you take one more drug dealer off the street, it helps make a dent and we keep fighting that problem on a daily basis," said Conjero.
Gordon-Patterson was convicted in June of criminal sale of a prescription, conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon.
Authorities found a loaded .38-caliber revolver in a cabinet of her office.
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