PORTLAND – One of two men who are accused of running a drug distribution ring with a former podiatrist who wrote prescriptions in exchange for cash and cocaine pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court.

Adam Goodwin, 37, of Scarborough pleaded guilty to health care fraud and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 12, facing as much as 20 years in prison.

Goodwin conspired with John Perry to obtain oxycodone prescriptions fraudulently and distribute the pills in southern Maine.

Perry, 52, pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenced on June 22 to serve eight years in prison.

Perry was a licensed podiatrist until 2011, and owned Atlantic Foot and Ankle in Portland until December 2010. In 2009 and 2010, he was responsible for the illegal distribution of more than 18,000 oxycodone pills, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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Neal Laverriere, 31, of Biddeford is scheduled to change his plea to guilty Wednesday on the same charges the others faced.

Federal prosecutors said in a court filing that they would have presented evidence at trial that Perry prescribed oxycodone and other drugs without any medical purpose in the names of patients he never treated.

In exchange, Perry received money or cocaine for his own use, court records show.

Prosecutors said Perry prescribed oxycodone pills to drug traffickers based in Connecticut whose names were given to him by Goodwin. Some prescriptions were written in the names of the drug traffickers, and others were written in the names of Maine-based conspirators whom he recruited to fill prescriptions.

Goodwin was a go-between, delivering cash from the dealers to Perry, according to court records.

Some of the drug profits were used by a business group that included Goodwin to finance a failed strip club in Westbrook, called Dreamers Cabaret, according to court records.

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To conceal his illegal prescription writing, Perry fabricated patient charts for many of the people, according to court documents. Members of the conspiracy filled the prescriptions at pharmacies throughout southern Maine and distributed the pills with Perry’s knowledge.

The government said it also would have presented evidence that Perry developed a scheme to defraud pharmacies and Maine’s health insurance program.

Court records say Perry wrote prescriptions for oxycodone in 2009 and 2010 that were filled at Rite Aid, CVS, Hannaford, Shaw’s and Community Pharmacy stores.

Prosecutors say Perry’s fraudulent prescriptions caused MaineCare and Medicare funds to be spent for controlled substances that he knew were not medically necessary.

 

Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:

sdolan@pressherald.com

 


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