ABINGDON, Va. – Joel Smithers, a Martinsville-based doctor, was found guilty of multiple drug charges at the conclusion of a three-week jury trial last week in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Acting United States Attorney Zachary T Lee announced.
The jury convicted Smithers, 42, after sixteen hours of deliberation, on one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of illegally distributing controlled substances and 466 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances.
“Patients trust doctors to make decisions based on their healthcare needs, not a perversion of their own greed,” Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said today. “For many years, this defendant betrayed the trust placed in him by his patients, his community, and the medical profession as a whole through his illegal distribution of thousands of medically unnecessary opioids. I am grateful to the entire prosecution team for brining this case to justice.”
“Physicians have critical roles in addressing the opioid epidemic and ensuring appropriate care for patients with pain and other illness,” mentioned DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge Shane Todd. “Healthcare providers have a vital responsibility when it comes to properly prescribing and dispensing medications and must be vigilant to prevent diversion. Today’s conviction demonstrates Smithers’s criminal indifference to the lives of others, and to the families who loved them. His reckless and fraudulent practices placed profits over the lives of his patients. We’re working hard with our partners to keep our communities and families safe from such tragic outcomes.”
“The existence of these ‘pill mills’ flooding southwest Virginia with controlled substances violates one of the first principles of the Hippocratic Oath: to do no harm,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “Joel Smithers did not seek to treat patients but rather sought to destroy lives for profit. I am grateful to both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for their resilience and professionalism in this and many other instances. My special thanks goes out to Virginia’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for their exemplary work in keeping our citizens safe.”
Evidence presented at trial showed Smithers opened an office in Martinsville in August 2015 and prescribed controlled substances to every patient in his practice, resulting in over 500,000 Schedule II controlled substances being distributed. The drugs involved included oxymorphone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl. A majority of those receiving prescriptions from Smithers traveled hundreds of miles, one-way, to receive the drugs. Smithers did not accept insurance and took in over $700,000 in cash and credit card payments prior to a search warrant being executed at his office on March 7, 2017.
Smithers was previously convicted in 2019 of these charges. However, after his conviction, the United States Supreme Court changed the law concerning jury instructions in cases involving illegal distribution of controlled substances by health care providers. Accordingly, a new trial was ordered.
Smithers has remained in custody since his original conviction in 2019. Sentencing is scheduled for March 3, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. in Abingdon. For each distribution count, Smithers faces a maximum sentence of imprisonment for a term of 20 years and a fine of $1,000,000. The conviction for maintaining a place for the illegal distribution of controlled substances carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment for a term of 20 years and a fine of $500,000.
The case was investigated by the Roanoke offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad and the Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General. Task force officers with the police departments of Bristol, Martinsville, Buena Vista, Roanoke, and Roanoke County; the Sheriff’s Offices of Henry County and Pittsylvania County; the Virginia State Police; and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Virginia Office of the Attorney General assisted in the investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys Randy Ramseyer and Corey Hall, and Special Assistant United States Attorney M. Suzanne Kerney-Quillen, a Senior Assistant Attorney General with the Virginia Attorney General’s Major Crimes and Emerging Threats Section, prosecuted the case in this most-recent trial for the United States.
