Foot doctor pleads guilty to drug fraud
A medical doctor from Colville pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Spokane to nine counts of acquiring prescription medicines by fraud, misrepresentation, deception and subterfuge.
Dr. James R. Alderson, a 52-year-old podiatrist, confessed to writing prescriptions to various patients who were instructed to fill the orders and return the drugs to him.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley accepted Alderson’s guilty pleas to nine of 55 counts in a federal indictment returned after his arrest last December by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The remaining counts are scheduled to be dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
The judge scheduled sentencing for Dec. 16. Alderson will remain free on bond until then.
As part of his guilty pleas, the foot doctor admitted that during 2003 he abused his authority as a treating physician while operating a podiatric practice at the 1st Foot Clinic in Colville.
The doctor confessed to writing prescriptions for patients he knew were not intended for them.
The controlled substances the doctor obtained by writing fraudulent prescriptions were Demerol, oxycontin, Diazepam, oxycodone and hydromorphone, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington said.
Each of the nine counts is a federal felony offense.
The case marks the second time Alderson has been caught violating prescription drug laws.
He voluntarily left the practice of medicine in 1993 and sought drug abuse treatment and counseling. Alderson applied for relicensing by the state of Washington and was reinstated, without conditions, in May 2001, public records show.
The latest investigation of Alderson began in the spring of 2003 when a woman who was living with Alderson called Stevens County sheriff’s deputies to report an incident of domestic violence, authorities said.
The woman told deputies that Alderson “said he would kill her if she disclosed to the medical licensing board his scheme of diverting narcotics to himself,” court documents said.
But when deputies responded to the woman’s 911 call, she denied making it. She changed her story several months later when recontacted by investigators after she had ended her relationship with Alderson.