Former Minister of Health Dr Noel Blackman yesterday pleaded guilty in a New York court to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, a controlled substance, and is expected to be sentenced early next year.
According to a court document seen by Stabroek News, Blackman, who was charged with conspiracy to distribute and distribution of the painkiller, oxycodone, pleaded guilty to count one of his indictment before Judge Joanna Seybert and will be sentenced on January 6, 2017 at 11 am.
Blackman had pleaded not guilty to the two charges on February 26, 2016 but earlier this month court documents revealed that he had entered into plea negotiations with the US Government. Since his arrest in February he has been in custody since he was deemed a flight risk. On February 7th, 2016, he was taken off of a plane which was about to leave the JFK Airport bound for Guyana.
On February 25th, a US grand jury indicted Blackman and Wascar Castillo, the former office manager of a Queens, New York pain management office where Blackman previously worked for conspiracy to distribute and distribution of oxycodone.
US Attorney Robert L Capers in setting out the US’s case to the judge related that around midnight on February 7th, agents with the US Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Unit detained Blackman and charged him.
Capers said that a joint probe by HSI and the US Drug Enforcement Administration showed that the defendant had issued approximately 2,487 prescriptions for more than 365,000 oxycodone pills last year, a big jump from the 21, 810 and 3,810 of oxycodone pills that he prescribed in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Capers further said that a month before his arrest, a border search showed that Eva Torres, the defendant’s secretary was travelling with approximately 50 prescriptions for oxycodone that were written on Blackman’s prescription pads. Although the prescriptions were dated December 9, 2015 they were seized on December 18, 2015.
The US attorney also pointed out that at the time of his arrest, Blackman was on a plane bound for Guyana. A subsequent search of his luggage showed more than US$30,000 cash which he had not reported to customs officials.
After his arrest, Capers said that Blackman waived his Miranda rights and stated that he wrote the prescriptions that were seized from Torres on December 18; that it was possible that some of his patients were addicted to oxycodone; that he charged around US$300 to see patients at this pain management clinic and that he typically saw approximately 100 patients per day which he estimated at one patient every six minutes.
Capers added that Torres was also arrested on February 7, 2016 and after waiving her Miranda rights stated that during approximately one year that she worked as Blackman’s secretary, the defendant had written prescriptions for oxycodone for individuals without having examined them.
Blackman was appointed Chairman of the Georgetown Public Hospital last year but following his arrest he was replaced by Dr Max Hanoman.
