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Indiana doctor to face trial in drugs-for-sex case
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By Paul Peirce
Published: Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 12:01 a.m.
Updated: Thursday, February 28, 2013
An Indiana County doctor accused of trading prescription painkillers for sexual favors from female patients has rejected a tentative plea bargain and will stand trial.
On Oct. 11, 2011, agents from the state Attorney General's Office and officers with the Indiana County Drug Task Force raided the office of Dr. Tahir Usman Mir, 61, at 7 S. Fifth St., Indiana, where he operated the Walk-In Clinic.
Mir avoided trial Oct. 22 before President Judge William Martin by tentatively approving a plea bargain with the Attorney General's office, but he changed his mind Friday, court records show.
Martin has scheduled jury selection for June.
Mir's attorney, Marc Daffner of Pittsburgh, said Tuesday that his client decided to reject the plea deal after learning its details.
“We asserted throughout that it was tentative, pending seeing the formal details. Once Dr. Mir saw the details, and they were explained to him, he decided he wanted a trial,” Daffner said.
He will stand trial on five felony charges — two counts of prescribing drugs that were medically unnecessary, two counts of conspiracy and one count of Medicaid fraud for allegedly accepting cash payments for medication he provided to drug addicts. Some of the felony drug counts carry a minimum sentence of five years in prison.
Mir scuffled with officers as agents entered an apartment above his medical office in 2011, according to an affidavit filed before Blairsville District Judge Jennifer Rega.
The raid was timed to coincide with a sexual rendezvous a confidential information had arranged with Mir in exchange for a prescription for a painkiller, according to police. Police said they confiscated the prescription from Mir during a search.
Agents allege Mir wrote prescriptions for oxycodone numerous times for one patient, even though he never conducted a full medical examination of the patient and was aware that she had failed drug screenings.
The sexual encounters took place in an apartment above the doctor's office and clinic, police said. Mir allegedly provided prescriptions directly or left them in a mailbox for the woman to pick up. On other occasions, Mir allegedly gave the woman cash so she could buy the prescription drugs.
Mir, who had been free after posting $50,000 bond, was ordered to be placed on house arrest under electronic monitoring while he awaits trial.
Paul Peirce is a writer for Trib Total Media.
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