East Flatbush doctor Kesler Dalmacy has pleaded guilty to prescribing narcotics to patients without a legitimate medical reason in exchange for cash.
Dalmacy, 70, entered the plea in front of United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly on Monday.
Acting United States Attorney Lesko said Dalmacy swore an oath to do no harm, yet "spread the scourge of addiction in our communities by writing bogus prescriptions for personal profit."
According to court filings, Dalmacy illegally prescribed patients thousands of highly addictive pills, including Adderall and Vicodin, in exchange for cash payments between Jan. 2014 and Feb. 2020.
The filings say Dalmacy wrote the prescriptions outside the course of his professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. To conceal the unauthorized prescriptions from law enforcement and oversight agencies, Dalmacy postdated prescriptions and provided multiple prescriptions to the same individual under different or fictitious names, the claim states.
Dalmacy's arrest followed an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program, led by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the DEA. The program's mission is to "identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations," the Justice Department says.
Lesko said his office, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, NYPD and the NYSP would "spare no effort in combatting the illegal distribution of addictive drugs, and in holding medical professionals like the defendant accountable to the fullest extent of the law."
New York State Police Acting Superintendent Kevin Bruen said the primary work of a medical practitioner was to help patients, yet "the work of this doctor did nothing but harm his victims, with no regard for their health."
"By taking payment for prescriptions, Dr. Dalmacy put his patients and the community he served at risk," he said.
"I thank our law enforcement partners involved in this investigation, and together we will work to keep drugs off our streets, prevent prescription drug abuse and senseless deaths."