Crime & Safety

Nearby: Herndon Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud

The Peters Township/Pleasant Hills physician faces 11 or more years in prison.

A doctor with offices in Peters Township and Pleasant Hills Borough accused of illegally prescribing narcotics pleaded guilty to health care fraud and all related charges on Tuesday.

, 40, who lives in Peters, appeared in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh before Judge Arthur Schwab. Herndon's attorney—Roger Cox—and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) representatives, including assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Kaufman, were present to relay the physician's summary of offenses.

Herndon, a 1996 graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the parties reached a plea agreement.

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Schwab said that the maximum sentence could be 30 years in prison, a $1-million fine and mandatory restitution payments. The agreement states that the doctor would have to acknowledge his responsibility to the remaining counts and provide his income, assets and financial statements, as well as pay a $200 special assessment fee.

However, Kaufman suggested a sentence of 135 months, or just more than 11 years.

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Kaufman summarized events observed by the DEA in the last year, including undercover detectives who were prescribed high doses of narcotics by Herndon.

Kaufman said that Herndon prescribed 10,800 tablets of 30-milligram oxycodone and 3,600 tablets of 30-milligram oxymorphone, resulting in a cost to insurance companies of between $400,000 and $1 million.

Out of 128 pharmacies in western Pennsylvania, 87 refused to fill the doctor's prescriptions. And one in Pittsburgh's Troy Hill neighborhood had a sign in its window stating that it would not fill prescriptions prescribed by Herndon.

Kaufman said that Herndon's waiting rooms were always full and that he saw 80 to 120 patients per day on average.

According to Kaufman, many of Herndon's patients were in their 20s and 30s and generally seemed "strung out or stoned."

A Pittsburgh detective, who went undercover as a patient, paid $200 in cash for an appointment with Herndon in November 2011, Kaufman said.

The detective's appointment lasted 3 minutes and 10 seconds, and no physical exams were given nor were tests ordered.

According to the detective, Herndon said to her, "As long as you're cool as a cucumber, you can get your meds from me."

The doctor's sentence hearing was set for Sept. 24, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. Herndon was ordered to turn over his passport but is not in custody.

A news conference will be held at 1 p.m. today, May 22, to discuss Herndon's plea and the overall non-medical use of prescription drugs in western Pennsylvania.

Representatives of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, along with Chief Harry Fruecht, West Mifflin Borough police Chief Kenneth Davies, Pleasant Hills Borough police Chief Ed Cunningham and Homestead Borough police Chief Jeffrey DeSimone, will participate.

This article originally appeared on the .

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