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Prosecutor to appeal dismissal of pharmacist's drug indictment
YOUNGSTOWN — The prosecutor’s office will appeal the dismissal by a trial judge of a 24-count indictment against a local pharmacist, an assistant prosecutor said.
Martin P. Desmond, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said his office will appeal Wednesday’s dismissal of the criminal charges against Gary A. Evankovich, 54, of Devonshire Drive, Boardman. The appeal will be filed in the 7th District Court of Appeals.
Evankovich was indicted in January on 24 counts of the sale of dangerous drugs in a reported long-distance Internet- prescription scheme.
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court dismissed the indictment on the grounds that the law under which Evankovich was charged specifically states that it does not apply to state-licensed pharmacists.
However, Desmond said he believes “the pharmacist cannot avail himself of that exemption because his conduct was outside the scope of how pharmacists are supposed to conduct their business.”
Desmond said he is convinced Evankovich was indicted under the proper statute and that he knows of two other judges in Mahoning County who have presided over cases in which pharmacists were successfully prosecuted under that statute.
An administrative hearing concerning Evankovich’s pharmacy license will resume Wednesday before the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy.
In the Evankovich matter, the illegal-drug orders were alleged to have originated in the Caribbean via the Internet, and the prescriptions were written by a New York physician and sent to Evankovich via the Internet, according to Robert E. Bush Jr., chief of the criminal division of the county prosecutor’s office.
Ohio law prohibits physicians from prescribing drugs for patients they haven’t seen, Bush said. Evankovich illegally filled prescriptions in cases where he knew or should have known that the physician didn’t see the patient for whom the drugs were being prescribed, Bush said.
In the indictment, Evankovich, an owner of North Lima and Bel-Park pharmacies, was accused of illegally filling more than 10,000 prescriptions totaling more than 1 million doses.
Among the drugs Evankovich was charged with dispensing illegally in large quantities are Fioricet, a strong narcotic pain reliever and relaxant; Tramadol, a narcoticlike pain reliever; and Soma, a muscle relaxer.