LIHU‘E — Dr. Harold “Tex” Spear III, accused of two counts of distributing prescription narcotics to people without getting proper patient identification and documentation, will plead guilty to those charges, his attorney said. Spear, 56, back on the island and
LIHU‘E — Dr. Harold “Tex” Spear III, accused of two counts of distributing prescription narcotics to people without getting proper patient identification and documentation, will plead guilty to those charges, his attorney said.
Spear, 56, back on the island and living in Hanapepe after his release from the Federal Detention Center on O‘ahu, was before 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe, apologizing to the court Tuesday for his request to continue his case until after Jan. 8 when he is scheduled to be sentenced for similar federal charges in federal court on O‘ahu.
On advice of his public defender in the federal case, Spear did not wish to make any statement on the record.
He is charged on the state level with felonies for violating state law by issuing prescriptions for controlled substances and not obtaining proper patient identification and documentation, and for administering, prescribing or dispensing a controlled substance without first establishing a bona fide physician-patient relationship, according to state court records.
State Deputy Public Defender Edmund Acoba, representing Spear in the state matters, said Tuesday that Spear will plead guilty to the state charges, on a court date Watanabe set for Jan. 13.
Acoba said a plea agreement in the state cases will suggest making any prison time concurrent with the federal time. Watanabe is not bound by conditions agreed to by county prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Earlier, in federal court on O‘ahu, Spear pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing narcotics to people with whom he never established face-to-face, doctor-patient relationships, according to federal prosecutors.
Spear, who used to practice medicine at the Hanapepe Clinic, pleaded guilty to dispensing controlled substances “outside the usual course of professional practice” and “not for a legitimate medical purpose,” according to an earlier press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Spear also pleaded guilty to one additional similar charge, filed in the Middle District of Alabama, of dispensing controlled substances. An Internet pharmacy had operated in that part of Alabama and filled narcotic prescriptions written by Spear.
Spear is scheduled to be sentenced on the five federal charges in early January before U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, in Honolulu.
He faces up to 20 years imprisonment and fines of up to $1 million on each of the four Hawai‘i charges, and up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 on the Alabama charge.
Edward Kubo Jr., former U.S attorney for the district of Hawai‘i, said in entering his guilty plea, Spear admitted he prescribed methadone — an opioid similar to morphine or heroin — to a Hawai‘i patient on four occasions in 2005 and 2006, and that in each instance the prescription was in violation of federal law prohibiting the dispensing of controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose.
The Alabama charge was premised on a similarly illegal prescription for hydrocodone, the chemical found in painkillers like Vicodin, Kubo said.
Court records show the investigation into Spear began with the execution of a search warrant at his Hanapepe office as part of a related investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations into the Alabama pharmacy filling prescriptions issued by Spear to patients in several southeastern states.
Following the Alabama investigation, federal authorities in Hawai‘i initiated an investigation into Spear’s Hawai‘i medical practice, including his operation of the Dial-A-Doc Web site.
Spear was originally charged with 20 counts of illegal dispensing of either oxycontin or methadone without establishing a face-to-face, doctor-patient relationship with the patients for whom he wrote the prescriptions, federal prosecutors said.
Part of the three-year federal investigation included one episode where a federal undercover officer was prescribed hydrocodone with guaifenesin — cough medication that can be sold over the counter — by Spear after a short telephone conversation, according to information earlier released by Kubo.
Spear was first arrested by federal agents in June 2007.
