Jurors told about Souderton ‘pill mill’
By Carolyn Davis, The Philadelphia Inquirer | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The story was a lie -- there was no accident and, before taking them herself, O'Brien gave the pills to her boyfriend, who sold them. Still, the Oxycodone and Xanax pills flowed by the hundreds for about a year -- so quickly that Ruth wrote new prescriptions faster than she could have used them, O'Brien told a
"I thought it was too good to be true, I thought I was being set up in some way," said O'Brien, 23. "It was too easy."
As Ruth's trial opened in
Ruth, 78, faces nearly 50 counts, including charges of prescribing to drug dependent people, prescription fraud, insurance fraud, identity theft, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, and corrupt organizations. Also on trial is his 46-year-old son, Michael, who was his lone office worker.
The investigation started in 2010, after
Investigators determined that Ruth prescribed 242,598 Oxycodone tablets between
"He cultivated users so they would come back to his office, week after week, to feed their addiction," Assistant District Attorney
Ruth's lawyer,
Ruth wasn't hooking people on drugs, Walfish said. He was trying to quickly and effectively relieve his patients' pain, since many lived paycheck to paycheck and could not afford to miss work.
As testimony began, prosecutors called former patients who said they had become addicted to the drugs Ruth prescribed. First Assistant District Attorney
A mother and a wife of two ex-patients said they asked Ruth to stop prescribing the Oxycodone because their loved ones had become hooked. Yet the drugs continued, they said.
The testimony Tuesday did not touch on a possible motive. Court filings suggested that Ruth said that his wife had lost
The trial is expected to last most of the week.
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