Catskill physician receives 54 months in prison for distribution of opioids, health care fraud, aggravated identify theft, and obstruction of justice
ALBANY, N.Y. – Myra Mabry, age 50, of Catskill, New York, was sentenced today to 54 months in prison for unlawfully distributing opioids, for impersonating her patients and defrauding insurance companies as part of the opioids distribution scheme, and for attempting to obstruct the investigation into her criminal activities.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), New York Division.
As part of her Aug. 5, 2019 guilty plea, Mabry, an obstetrician-gynecologist, admitted that between 2015 and 2017, she wrote prescriptions for oxycodone, morphine and hydromorphone to third parties, for no legitimate medical purpose, and then instructed a co-conspirator, Sarah Brown, to fill those prescriptions by impersonating the named recipients at pharmacies, knowing that the patients’ health care benefit programs would pay the costs.
“This investigation ends with Myra Mabry’s sentence of over four years in prison, but clearly reinforces law enforcement’s commitment to weeding out opioid traffickers no matter what their profession,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan. “I applaud our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, the DEA’s Albany District Office’s Tactical Diversion Squad, and the New York Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement for their diligent work.”
United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith stated, “Myra Mabry’s disgraceful conduct demonstrates that she has no business practicing medicine. She betrayed her patients, violated her Hippocratic Oath, and orchestrated an elaborate scheme to avoid accountability for her crimes by bribing someone else to take the fall for her. I commend the DEA for its excellent work in this case. The message here is clear, those who criminally violate their professional oaths will be arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned.”
In pleading guilty, Mabry also admitted that she attempted to obstruct a federal investigation into her activities by instructing Brown to testify before a federal grand jury, falsely, that Mabry was the subject of an extortionate scheme. In fact, Mabry was not the subject of an extortionate scheme, was complicit in the scheme to distribute opioids for no medical purpose, and agreed to pay Brown for false testimony in the hope of minimizing her criminal exposure and preserving her medical license.
Mabry surrendered her New York medical license after pleading guilty in August 2019, and has been unable to prescribe controlled substances since October 2017.
United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also sentenced Mabry to 3 years of supervised release, to be served following her release from prison. In sentencing Mabry, Judge D’Agostino described Mabry’s conduct as “horrendous” and a “massive conspiracy in terms of the drugs” involved.
Brown, age 42, of Akra, New York, pled guilty on Sept. 4, 2019 to conspiring to distribute controlled substances, health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and obstruction of justice. Her sentencing is scheduled for March 11.
This case was investigated by the DEA, with assistance from the New York Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne A. Myers.
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