An Atlanta doctor and a Houston clinic owner were sentenced this week for their roles in what is described as a “pill mill” criminal enterprise.
As reported, Dr. Jonathan Rosenfield, 40, of Atlanta, and clinic owner Elmer Taylor, 44, of Houston, received sentences of 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges related to “the unlawful distribution and dispensing ‘pills’ which were controlled substances.”
Court documents revealed, as news reports indicated, that Rosenfield owned, operated, and served as a physician at two Sunnyside Wellness medical clinics which were described in news reports as the “pill-mill clinics.” Taylor is described as a co-owner and co-operator of the clinics. The two people, “along with accomplices,” engaged in extensive and long term criminal activities in distributing the illegal pills.
The criminal enterprise operated by the doctors and accomplices issuing prescriptions for opioids. Reporting alleges that “approximately 752,000 pills of oxycodone and 419,000 pills of hydrocodone” were prescribed using Rosenfield’s name. “These prescriptions were not in the usual course of professional practice and lacked a legitimate medical purpose.”
Money was generated when drug dealers paid people to present as “fake patients,” and the pills were then diverted to the illegal market. “Between May 2018 and August 2019, the Sunnyside Medical clinics generated approximately $5,478,000 from the sale of these prescription drugs.”
Two co-defendants in the case, Sokari “Momma” Bobmanuel and Alantha Stewart, had previously received sentences of 14 years and 10 years in prison, respectively. The announcement relating to Rosenfield and Taylor was made by “Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez of the FBI Houston Field Office.”
