A Cold Spring Harbor doctor with an office on North Village Avenue was sentenced to three years probation after he was arrested for selling painkiller prescriptions to an undercover RVC police detective without performing any medical examination.
Dr. Martin Roginsky, 82, of Cold Spring Harbor, made an estimated $261K by selling phony prescriptions for Oxycodone and other painkillers. He pleaded guilty in February to fourth-degree criminal diversion of prescription medication and prescriptions, a Class A misdemeanor.
A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said in addition to probation, Roginsky had to surrender his medical license and pay $93,000 in restitution.
According to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, the Rockville Centre Police Department and the DA's Office began an undercover investigation into Roginsky after they received a tip in April 2011 that he was selling prescriptions for addictive, opiate-based painkillers like Oxycontin, Oxycodone and Roxycodone from his Rockville Centre office located at 2000 N. Village Ave.
An undercover Rockville Centre detective who claimed he was experiencing back and hand pain after falling off a roof, obtained four prescriptions for Oxycodone and Roxycodone for $225 in cash. At no point did Roginsky conduct any medical examination on the undercover detective. It is estimated that Roginsky took in more than $261,000 by selling prescriptions. The street value of the pills is estimated to be between $10 million and $15 million.
Instead, he supplies Oxy with a street value of $15 million and gets away with it because it is legal to prescribe. All he's guilty of is “Inappropriate prescribing” of oxycodone. Guess the AMA is one powerful lobby. How else could unscrupulous doctors profit off this swindle! BTW, those street dealers and users found with Oxy are felons: Penalty for Possession of Schedule II Drugs: * First offense: 5-40 years, 5 year mandatory min; if death or serious injury, 20 year min.; up to $2 million fine individual, $5 million other than individual. * Second offense: 10-Life, 10 year min.; if death or serious injury, not less than life; up to $4 million fine individual, $10 million other than individual. Why should this Doctor be treated any differently? Despite his age, he was involved in a drug enterprise that is destroying our communities. He intentionally violated a tenent of his Hippocratic Oath "...to practice medicine ethically..." Look at all the crimes happening in the NY metro area! Pharmacies are being robbed, people killed, just to get Oxy. What he did was clearly unethical. The punishment does not fit the crime
@ Ann. What kind of precedent are we setting here? Why should this MD gets the kid gloves treatment? simply because he's a little old man that doled out antibiotics and vaccines to the public? Are you implying because he's saved many lives in his practice that that alone should outweigh any damage he did by filling out bogus prescriptions?
drugs..
Those pills that are sold on the street contribute to many deadly overdoses that go unreported.