Prominent IM doc arrested for manslaughter and other charges
BY KEITH EPPS / THE FREE LANCESTAR
A Stafford doctor was arrested Friday morning on 95 felony chargesincluding involuntary manslaughterpolice said.
Nibedita Mohanty, 54, was indicted Monday by a Stafford County grand jury on 72 counts of illegally distributing drugs, 22 counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and involuntary manslaughter.
The indictments were sealed pending the doctors arrest, which occurred on Courthouse Road in Stafford.
It was not immediately clear what led to the manslaughter charge. A Sheriffs Office release only says that it stems from an overdose death directly related to Mohantys practice of over prescribing pain narcotics.
Stafford Sheriffs Capt. Billy Bowler said more information regarding that charge might be released sometime next week.
Other than the manslaughter allegation, the charges against Mohanty arent a surprise. Her office on Garrisonville Road and her home on Marlborough Point Road were raided in January. Numerous records, bank statements, computers and cash were seized.
In affidavits for search warrants filed in Stafford Circuit Court, Mohanty was accused of operating a pill mill and her North Stafford medical practice was described as a haven for drug abusers and dealers.
During an investigation that began in 2011, police claimed they had identified 46 people who were prescribed drugs by Mohanty that were involved in trafficking prescription drugs. The FBI and the DEA have assisted Stafford authorities in the probe.
The records said Mohanty wrote an average of 50 prescriptions a week, and a doctor who reviewed her prescribing practices said the volume of drugs and other factors indicated something was amiss.
William Winfred Price, Mohantys former live-in boyfriend, was the only one of four informants named in the court documents. The others were described as patients who had addictions or legal troubles stemming from drugs they supposedly got from Mohanty.
One informant told police he went to Mohanty at the suggestion of a friend who told him she would prescribed anything for $250.
The affidavits also alleged that Mohanty was involved in tax and insurance fraud.
Mohanty, who practices internal medicine, has been practicing in Stafford for more than 20 years and until recently served as chief of medicine at Stafford Hospital.
She and her attorney, Charles Roberts, released a letter in March in which she adamantly denied any wrongdoing.
I strongly deny the allegations set out in the news reports and the search warrant affidavit as I have not prescribed medicine to any patient who I knew or had reason to believe was abusing the drugs or selling the medicine to others, Mohanty wrote in a letter to The Free LanceStar.
She said she was shocked to have her home and business raided based on information from people she described as drug dealers, drug addicts and convicted felons. She was especially critical of Price, who she accused of intentionally damaging her reputation because she had him arrested following a domestic incident last year.
Price was convicted of several misdemeanors and spent time in jail.
Mohanty wrote at the time that as the result of the investigation, she had permanently given up prescribing pain medication.
I wish to thank all of my patients and other members of our community for their outpouring of support during this crisis, and I anticipate this investigation ultimately will show that I have not violated any laws, wrote Mohanty, who had not been charged at the time.
Sheriffs spokesman Bill Kennedy said the investigation is ongoing and no additional information will be provided at this point.
A date for Mohantys initial court appearance in Stafford Circuit Court had not been set as of Friday.
http://news.fredericksburg.com/news...th-involuntary-manslaughter-94-other-charges/
Posted: Saturday, May 11, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 11:55 pm, Sun May 12, 2013.
BY BILL McKELWAY Richmond Times-Dispatch
A Stafford County doctor and former hospital chief who was arrested Friday on multiple felonies prescribed tens of thousands of doses of narcotics to clinically fragile patients with existing drug addictions, according to disciplinary files and criminal charges.
Dr. Nibedita Mohanty was taken into custody Friday morning by Stafford authorities after a monthslong investigation on charges that include involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 41-year-old female patient two years ago.
Mohanty, 54, a graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, according to a profile, had her license suspended in April on an emergency basis.
According to state Board of Medicine documents released Friday, the doctor allegedly prescribed thousands of doses of powerful narcotics to the 41-year-old patient notwithstanding (the doctors) awareness of drug-seeking behavior and information that should have indicated the patient was abusing or had become addicted.
Mohantys patient records showed diagnoses of five separate illnesses with no supportive testing of the woman who died June 1, 2011, of acute combined oxycodone and (an antidepressant) toxicity.
Two weeks before the patients death, the woman had been admitted to the hospital for a drug overdose, but on May 31 was prescribed 500 doses of pain medication by Mohanty. A patient note initialed by Mohanty indicated the woman had not taken pain medications in two months before hospitalization.
Stafford investigators said that the doctor faces 95 separate charges, including 72 counts of felony distribution of narcotics, 22 counts of obtaining money by false pretenses through insurance fraud, and the manslaughter charge.
A sheriffs spokesman declined to identify the deceased patient. Mohanty is expected to be arraigned Monday although the investigation is continuing.
A 39-page medical board statement of particulars linked to the license suspension proceeding describes Mohanty prescribing thousands of doses of narcotics to patients, sometimes without physical tests for alleged conditions.
A 27-year-old woman allegedly was treated by the doctor for 25 months, during which the woman was prescribed 21,635 doses of oxycodone, nearly 2,000 doses of Opana, and some 12,000 doses of other narcotics. She was found unresponsive from an apparent medical overdose, but was revived.
Key medical board allegations also involve instances in which the physician allegedly knew patients were selling prescribed narcotics on the street but continued to supply them prescriptions.
Search warrants issued by Stafford investigators and published in a Fredericksburg newspaper earlier this year quote investigators as being told by patients that Mohanty will give you anything you want for $250.
Physician profiles list Mohanty, a former chief of medicine at Stafford Hospital, as board-certified in internal medicine, and search warrants show she has been under federal, state and administrative investigation since at least 2011. One affidavit alleged that of 67 patients listed in Mohantys records, 46 were involved in trafficking prescription narcotics.
Investigators called in a medical expert to assess their findings and patient doses, tracking more than 13,000 prescriptions. Investigators learned from a boyfriend that Mohanty kept tens of thousands of dollars of cash on hand, at one point paying for a $50,000 swimming pool with cash from a paper bag.
http://mobi.timesdispatch.com/richmond/pm_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=
