Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Staff report
WARREN
Dr. Mark D. Jones, 49, of Ridge Road in Fowler Township, a Howland dentist, pleaded guilty Monday to 10 counts of drug trafficking for selling or attempting to sell Oxycodone to a “nonpatient associate.”
He entered the plea Monday before Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, who will sentence Dr. Jones in about a month, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation.
Gina Buccino Arnaut, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Jones wrote prescriptions for the drug 10 times between March 2011 and October 2011 for the associate and received half of the pills for himself.
Dr. Jones is active in his dentistry practice at 8799 E. Market St.
His license was suspended by the Ohio State Dental Board in April 2012 but was reinstated the following July under a series of conditions, including that a treating practitioner verify that he is no longer “drug- or alcohol-dependent,” that he is in treatment and participating in an aftercare program and in Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, and that he obtain additional training in dental-infection control.
Among the terms of his probation are that he not order, prescribe or administer any controlled substances.
Dr. Jones could get up to 30 years in prison or probation.