Former Hempfield doctor to stand trial in fatal overdose case

A Westmoreland County judge ruled Friday that a Hempfield physician can withdraw his no contest plea to charges that he over-prescribed methadone to a patient who overdosed and died.

Dr. Edgar Peske, 80, will go to trial in December or early next year on charges of drug delivery resulting in death and two other offenses. Prosecutors allege he supplied the fatal dose of drugs that his patient Nicole Henderson, 30, of Unity, took in 2015.

“I think justice requires that I allow him to withdraw his plea,” said Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger.

Henderson’s father stormed out of the courtroom following the judge’s ruling.

“He may not get justice here, but he will get justice in the future,” he said.

Peske did not speak during Friday’s hearing. State prosecutors objected the doctor’s position that he now claims he is innocent of charges that also include two felony counts of administration of a controlled substance by a practitioner and Medicaid fraud.

The doctor’s no contest plea did not include an admission of guilt but an acknowledgement that he would not challenge the criminal charges. Under state law, no contest pleas are considered convictions.

Prosecutors contended Peske’s desire to withdraw his plea is just an attempt to delay the case and sentence.

Defense attorney Brian Aston refuted that argument. He said Peske only consented to the no contest plea in March when prosecutors agreed not to recommend any potential sentences. Aston said a sentencing memorandum submitted last month by prosecutors discussed claims that Peske had a long history of over-prescribing pain killers to patients and said that the doctor was subject to standard sentencing guidelines that could result in his being ordered to serve more than six years in prison.

“There was a miscommunication. You said you would just stick to the facts of the case and then the sentencing memo was filed that I felt went far beyond that,” Aston said. That court filing included details about the scope of the state’s investigation into Peske’s behavior, including findings that Henderson was one several patients who were prescribed a total of more than 104,000 pills in the previous 22 months, police said. One patient, according to court records, was prescribed 30 pills a day of the painkiller oxycodone.

The defense, in court documents and again during Friday’s hearing, suggested that Henderson was suicidal and was responsible for her own death.

“If she would have followed the prescription, she would not have died,” Aston said.

Peske has been free on a recognizance bond since his arrest in 2017 and will remain so until his trial. He no longer practices medicine.