ASHLAND —
A local dentist has been charged by the federal government with illegally dispensing prescription narcotics.
Dr. Robert B. Adkins was named in a U.S. District Court indictment charging him with two counts distributing controlled substances without legitimate medical or dental purpose. The indictment was returned by a grand jury on Sept. 6, but not unsealed until last week.
Adkins could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. However, application of federal sentencing guidelines would likely result in him receiving him a lesser penalty.
Adkins was arraigned Thursday before Magistrate Judge Edward B. Atkins. Through his attorney, Michael Curtis, he entered not-guilty pleas to the charges. Atkins set a trial date of Dec. 10 and allowed the defendant to remain free under certain conditions.
The indictment alleges that between January 2008 and June 2011, Adkins knowingly and intentionally distributed Schedule II and Schedule III narcotics “without a legitimate medical and dental purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice.”
Adkins was arrested in May of last year after Boyd County sheriff’s deputies found him sorting pills in his office on Ky. 716 at Summit.
Deputy Rick Francis said he responded to Adkins’ office after Sgt. Rob Donta noticed a vehicle parked near the front door with an open door and the engine running and no one around it.
Francis said he and Donta also noticed the glass in the front door of the office appeared to have been broken or cracked. The door with the broken glass was not locked, Francis said, and he and Donta entered the premises to investigate the possibility of a burglary in progress.
Once inside, the officers said they saw a man through an interior window who appeared to have a pill bottle in his hand and seemed to be sorting pills. The deputies said they were uncertain who the man was, and continued to watch him briefly without interrupting his activities.
When the man seemed to have completed his task and turned off a light in the office, the officers made him aware of their presence and asked him for identification.
The man identified himself as Adkins, and the deputies asked him about the pill-sorting activity they had witnessed.
Adkins told the deputies he had pills in his front pocket, then produced a small paper envelope containing Suboxone, Valium and Xanax tablets. Adkins told the officers he had obtained the prescription drugs without the assistance of a doctor and without any form of legal prescription.
A grand jury indictment is a formal accusation of a crime and does not establish guilt.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.
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Dentist charged with illegally dispensing drugs
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