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Florida Doctor Indicted By Feds For Illegal Pain Meds

Stethoscope and gavel against a white backdrop.
Wikimedia Commons
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A northeast Florida doctor has been indicted by a federal grand jury for causing a patient's death by selling an illegal combination of pain medications.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says 56-year-old Russell Sachs is being charged with four counts, including of dispensing and distributing controlled substances for no legitimate medical purpose.

The indictment says Sachs gave out morphine, which led to the death of a patient.

The Florida Times-Union reports that records show four people died of accidental overdose while in Sachs' care in 2009.

Sachs told the newspaper that the patient deaths were caused by their own doctor-shopping medication abuse.

If convicted, Sachs faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20-years-to-life in federal prison on count one and up to 20 years for each of the other counts.