A 71-year-old Baldwin doctor was sentenced Thursday to eight years in federal prison for prescribing the addictive painkiller oxycodone to patients with no medical reason, including one who fatally overdosed.
William Conway had pleaded guilty at Central Islip federal court of conspiracy and distribution of oxycodone. Judge Leonard Wexler also sentenced Conway to three years of supervised release.
“Instead of using his skills as a physician to ‘do no harm,’ Conway perpetuated pain and suffering, inundating our communities with a highly addictive narcotic and causing the death of a young man struggling with substance abuse,” said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said Conway performed cursory, incomplete examinations of patients while prescribing an average of 163 per month between 2009 and ’11, totaling more than 782,000 pills before he was arrested in June 2012.
One of those patients, Giovanni Manzella, died of an overdose in April 23, 2011 after Conway issued him five oxycodone prescriptions, totaling more than 800 pills during a six-month period with little to no examination.
