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Feds Charge Dublin Attorney In Ohio Pain Pill Case
By: Associated Press
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A Dublin attorney will appear in court later this month on charges he conspired with a pain clinic operator and helped launder the clinic's proceeds.
A federal grand jury indicted Steven Hillman, 67, of Dublin, on Wednesday alleging that he and partner Tracy Bias, 47, of West Portsmouth, conspired to open Physicians Pharmacy in Piketon to illegally distribute prescription medication to pain clinics, owned and controlled by Bias.
Hillman is also accused of trying to launder $132,920 in proceeds from the conspiracy.
Bias and six other doctors were initially indicted in April 2012 in a 12-count indictment alleging that they ran three"pill mills" between January 2009 and June 2011, two in Portsmouth and one in Columbus.
Customers would allegedly travel miles to these clinics and would pay on average $200 in cash per office visit, with little or no physical examination.
The indictment claims customers would receive excessive amounts of prescription drugs, including hydrocodone and oxycodone. It also claims the prescriptions contributed to the deaths of at least two patients.
Hillman is scheduled to appear before a judge in Cincinnati next Thursday and faces up to 20 years in prison.