Doctor pleads guilty to illegally selling prescriptions

By Joe Gorman | March 25, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A Canfield doctor entered an Alford plea Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to charges he sold prescription drugs illegally.

An Alford plea means a defendant maintains innocence but concedes there is enough evidence that a reasonable person could believe he or she is guilty. Judge R. Scott Krichbaum accepted the plea from William Paloski, 74, to five fifth-degree felony drug charges and eight first-degree misdemeanor drug charges.

Paloski was charged in February in a 78-count indictment accusing him of writing the illegal prescriptions from 2012 to 2015.

Sentencing will be at 8:30 a.m. May 23.

The state will recommend probation at sentencing.

Paloski also agreed to forfeit an SUV, $250,000 cash, firearms, a building and his medical license for three years.

Paloski faced similar charges in the 1980s, but those charges eventually were dropped.

The drugs Paloski is accused of illegally prescribing include alpazolam, tramadol, codeine, diazepam, zolpidem and others to 16 patients and an undercover officer. Some of the patients received prescriptions for more than one drug, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors would not comment on how the investigation into Paloski started other than they received information that he was selling prescriptions illegally. The case was investigated by the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force.

In court, Paloski’s attorney, David Betras, said his client is old and suffers from bad health and decided a plea would be better than a lengthy trial that could have resulted in a far more serious sentence than that one that was worked out in the plea agreement.

“He does not believe that taking a risk on his freedom at this point in his life is a worthy endeavor,” Betras said.