U.S. Attorney William S. Thompson | U.S. Department of Justice
Dr. Alexander V. Otellin, a former physician from Charleston, has been sentenced to three years in prison for unlawfully distributing oxycodone. This sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Court documents reveal that on July 27, 2017, Otellin distributed oxycodone to a patient at his psychiatry practice in South Charleston without legitimate medical purpose or proper authority. Despite being a psychiatrist, he treated the patient for pain management and continued prescribing controlled substances even after knowing the patient was receiving opiates from another doctor and abusing heroin and fentanyl.
From February 6, 2014, to July 15, 2020, Otellin failed to review the patient's medical history or document controlled substance prescriptions properly. He also prescribed medications without evaluating the patient for about five months during this period.
Otellin's prescribing practices raised concerns among pharmacists who reported him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). One patient died from an overdose after receiving above-therapeutic levels of buprenorphine along with alprazolam and gabapentin from Otellin. Another patient died from combined intoxication involving fentanyl and other drugs prescribed by Otellin.
Following his indictment by a federal grand jury on September 22, 2021, Otellin fled to Russia but was later arrested in Armenia in September 2023. The U.S. Marshals Service took custody of him and returned him to the United States in April 2024.
United States Attorney Will Thompson commended various agencies for their work on this case: “Dr. Otellin repeatedly prescribed opiates, stimulants and other drugs outside the normal course of medical practice in communities that continue to suffer from the overdose crisis.”
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Charles D. Strauss and Assistant United States Attorneys Owen Reynolds and Andrew D. Isabell under United States District Judge Irene C. Berger.
Otellin has surrendered his medical license with the West Virginia Board of Medicine.
