A Houston County doctor has been given a 30 year federal prison sentence for illegally prescribing drugs.

Green

MACON:  Dr. Spurgeon Green, Jr., was convicted on November 6, 2008, after a seven week trial on forty-six (46) counts of illegally distributing and dispensing schedule II controlled substances which prescriptions were not for legitimate medical purposes and were outside the usual course of professional practice.

G.F. “Pete” Peterman, III, Acting United States Attorney, announced that Dr. Spurgeon Green was sentenced today before the Honorable C. Ashley Royal, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Georgia.  Green was sentenced to 360 months (30 years) without the possibility of parole followed by five years of supervised release.

One count included the additional element of causing serious bodily injury resulting in the death of a patient.  Green and physician’s assistant Dorothy Mack were convicted of operating a "pill mill."  Evidence showed they dispensed what was described as a "cocktail" of narcotics to include Oxycodone and other scheduled (prescription only) drugs upon patient requests in Perry, Georgia from the year 2000 to July, 2003.

Jack Kelly Joseph, a pharmacist, aided Green in the distribution of these Schedule II narcotics, filling Green’s prescriptions at a rate which was ten (10) times higher than the United States average.

Peterman stated that:  “This case represents the hard work of many law enforcement officers to protect the public against a doctor who abused the trust of the community.  Through his actions, Dr. Green preyed on the addictions of patients and ruined not only their lives but, in several instances, the lives of their families and loved ones who had to deal with the complications of the addictions.”

The case as investigated by the Houston County Sheriff’s Office and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Diversion Division.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Kolman, Verda Colvin and Stewart Brown.