21,866 Hydrocodone pills prescribed during 9 month period
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A Jefferson County, Kentucky, dentist pleaded guilty in United States District Court today, before Magistrate Judge Colin H. Lindsay, to a charge of illegal distribution of controlled substances announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.
In court today, Rodney B. Fultz, 63, admitted to allowing an employee who was not authorized to write prescriptions for controlled substances to use his DEA registration number to prescribe 21,866 hydrocodone pills during a ten month period.
Specifically, according to the plea agreement, during calendar year 2012, Fultz owned Market Street Dental in Louisville, Kentucky. Between January 2012 and November 2012, D.C.K., also a dentist, performed dental work on patients at Market Street. At the time, D.C.K.’s DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) registration number was voluntarily suspended, which precluded him from writing prescriptions for controlled substances. Nonetheless, Fultz knowingly gave D.C.K. his DEA registration number so that D.C.K. could prescribe controlled substances for his patients. Fultz was rarely at Market Street, and did not supervise, review, or approve any of these prescriptions when they were written.
Between January 2012 and November 2012, D.C.K. prescribed 21,866 hydrocodone pills to his patients, using Rodney B. Fultz’s DEA registration number. Hydrocodone is a highly addictive controlled substance used for the treatment of pain. Although now a Schedule II controlled substance, hydrocodone was a Schedule III controlled substance in 2012.
At the time of sentencing, the United States will agree to a sentence of two years of probation, a fine of $45,000 and require Fultz to permanently surrender both his DEA registration number and his license to practice dentistry in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Sentencing will be scheduled before Senior District Judge Thomas B. Russell.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Weiser and is being investigated by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Louisville Metro Police Department.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
