A Richland doctor prescribed 41,000 opioids in a year. 2 pill mill guilty pleas

A 41-year-old man admitted this week to enlisting at least eight people to help fill fake opioid prescriptions at Tri-Cities area pharmacies.

Then, David Barnes-Nay either sold the opioids and other highly addictive medications and pocketed the money, or traded the pills for different drugs, according to court documents.

He got the prescriptions from Dr. Janet S. Arnold, who would sign blank forms and give them to her office staff to fill in a patient’s name, drug type, dosage and quantity, documents said.

Barnes-Nay became the second person to admit guilt in the now-disgraced doctor’s alleged pill mill operation.

He recently pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and six counts of distributing controlled substances.

Federal prosecutors will dismiss 34 additional charges at his sentencing Nov. 19.

The prescribed medications included opioids — or pain relievers, along with stimulants, muscle relaxers and sedatives.

Court documents say DEA investigators found about 487 “prescriptions” with Arnold’s signature issued over a 14-month period.

Those included 27,200 oxycodone pills, 6,680 methadone pills, 7,100 Carisoprodol pills and nearly 2,000 Fentanyl patches.

Refills on certain potent narcotics are prohibited, but Arnold’s office allegedly got around that by issuing multiple prescriptions authorizing a patient to receive a maximum 90-day supply.

Danielle C. Mata, one of Arnold’s employees, pleaded guilty last December to the same seven felony charges.

She will see 53 other charges dismissed at his sentencing Oct. 29.

In Mata’s plea agreement, prosecutors noted that they will ask the sentencing judge to consider her role as an “organizer and leader of criminal activity that involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive.”

Mata was a receptionist and office manager at the now-closed Desert Wind Family Practice.

She worked for the doctor from early 2016 until May 2017, when Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided the office at 431 Wellsian Way.

Medical license suspended

Arnold’s medical license was suspended the following month and then, in March 2018, her license was revoked by the state as the federal criminal investigation into her practice was ongoing. She had been a doctor since 1988.

Arnold was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2018 on 65 criminal charges involving conspiracy to distribute, and both attempted distribution and the actual distribution of controlled substances. Her trial is next spring at the Richland Federal Building.

Employee Jennifer C. Prichard and Prosser resident Lisa M. Cooper also are accused in the case.

Prosecutors allege the office charged patients $20 for prescriptions without an appointment and $80 to $120 if they wanted to see the doctor.

“The conspirators issued prescriptions to individuals never examined by co-defendant Arnold or seen by her only a few times,” court documents said. “Arnold would prescribe highly addictive controlled substances just because the person requested them and would increase their dosage amounts just because the patient requested it.”

Arnold was authorized to prescribe narcotics for legitimate medical purposes at her practice, but she was not licensed by the state to operate as a pain management clinic.

Prosecutors claim the doctor pre-signed prescription forms, and let Mata and Prichard fill them out as needed. Those two employees were not licensed care providers and had no training or legal authorization to prescribe medications, documents said.

Cooper, like Barnes-Nay, allegedly used other people to obtain and fill prescriptions from Arnold’s office.

Prosecutors say Barnes-Nay became a member of the conspiracy knowing what the organizers were trying to accomplish.

This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 5:00 AM.