Family doctor guilty of giving patients opioid painkillers, Xanax in exchange for sex
A family doctor who practiced in Westmoreland and Fayette counties has pleaded guilty to illegally prescribing opioid painkillers in exchange for sex, federal prosecutors said.
Emilio Ramon Navarro, 60, also pleaded guilty to health care fraud for billing the federal government to pick up the tab for illegal prescriptions, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman said.
Navarro resides in Coal Center, Washington County and previously operated out of medical offices in Mt. Pleasant and Perryopolis. He voluntarily relinquished his medical license.
As part of his guilty plea, Navarro “accepted responsibility” for eight more counts of unlawful distribution of a Schedule II controlled substance, according to Kaufman.
Navarro had been indicted on more than 150 counts related to his illegal prescription scheme between April 2015 and mid-2019.
A federal grand jury initially charged Navarro on 29 counts of health care fraud and illegal prescribing oxyocodone and oxymorphone in exchange for sexual favors from a patient. Then U.S. Attorney Scott Brady described that patient as a victim of Navarro, who “was exploiting the addiction of one of his patients for his own personal gain.”
Navarro prescribed the patient enough prescriptions for hundreds of doses of the opioid medication “outside the usual course of professional practice” and “for no legitimate purpose but in exchange for sexual favors,” the indictment said.
Then, in March 2020, after a second patient came forward with allegations against Navarro, prosecutors filed 130 more related charges against Navarro, for a total of 161. The second patient said she was given Xanax in return for sex, investigators said.
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan scheduled Navarro’s sentencing hearing for March 1. Navarro could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $1 million for the narcotics conviction, according to Kaufman. The health care fraud conviction could carry up to 10 more years behind bars.
The case was brought by the Western Pennsylvania Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, which teams up federal prosecutors and agencies with local and state law enforcement.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Robert S. Cessar and Mark v. Gurzo prosecuted the case with help from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Service, Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and Pennsylvania Bureau of Licensing.
The Sept. 23, 2019 raid of Navarro’s Fayette County office marked the first time such a rapid-response team was deployed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office during the arrest of a medical professional, according to Brady. Drug and alcohol counselors joined investigators to assist a line of about 50 patients waiting outside Navarro’s office door while their doctor was arrested. They handed out flyers on where to seek legitimate care, where to find a new doctor or pharmacy and how to get into opioid addiction treatment programs.
“We know that while shuttering an office might mean the end of a doctor’s illegal behavior, it marks the beginning of an opioid-dependent patient’s quest for a new prescriber,” Brady said at the time. “Sometimes the street is the first choice.”
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