Local Doctor, 79, Gets Seven Years in Prison For Dealing Prescription Drugs
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An Elkins Park doctor today was sentenced to jail time for running what the feds call a "pill mill" out of his South Philadelphia office.
Dr. Richard Minicozzi, 79, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for selling Vicodin and Xanax, and prescriptions for oxycodone, for cash out of his office at 7th and Morris Streets.
Assistant US attorney Mary Kay Costello says Minicozzi was convicted last March of selling the drugs for cash between 2005 and 2010.
"We determined through our financial investigation that the doctor had deposited over $1.5 million of cash into his financial accounts from this pill-mill operation," she tells KYW Newsradio.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Miller says that Dr. Minicozzi, of Elkins Park, was caring for two adults daughters who required round-the-clock medical care, and that he believes Minicozzi himself is experiencing some mental abnormalities.
"His judgement is clearly clouded," Miller told KYW Newsradio. "There's no doubt about it. He just has... he's a good person but he has very poor judgement."
Miller says he was disappointed in the seven-year sentence, but he understands. He points out that the judge in the case handed down a sentence that was below federal guidelines.
