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Change Of Plea Hearing For Ohio Pain Clinic Owner

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A hearing that usually indicates a guilty plea has been scheduled for the owner of three Ohio medical clinics charged with illegal drug distribution.

Tracy Bias of West Portsmouth was accused in a federal indictment last year of overseeing six doctors who wrote illegal prescriptions.

The indictment also alleged the 48-year-old Bias opened an unlicensed dispensary after legitimate pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions.

Cincinnati federal judge Michael Barrett on Monday scheduled a change of plea hearing for June 7 for Bias, who previously pleaded not guilty.

Such hearings typically signal guilty pleas. A message was left with Bias' attorney.

The 2012 indictment alleged that dozens of customers a week would travel hundreds of miles to visit the clinics in southern and central Ohio and pay $200 per visit for painkillers.