CHARLESTON, W.Va.— A former Charleston doctor will spend time in prison for the unlawful distribution of oxycodone.
Alexander, V. Otellin, 57, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Otellin, on July 27, 2027, distributed a quantity of oxycodone to a patient at his psychiatry practice in South Charleston. He admitted that while his specialty was psychiatry, he treated the patient for pain management. He also admitted that the oxycodone distribution was without a legitimate medical purpose, outside the usual course of medical practice, and without proper authority.
From February 6, 2014, to on or about July 15, 2020. Otellin distributed controlled substances to the patient. He admitted that he knew that the patient was receiving opiates from another physician. Urine screenings for the patient indicated that they were abusing heroin and fentanyl, however Otellin continued to prescribe medications that are dangerous when combined with illegal unprescribed drugs.
According to the documents, Otellin did not review the patient’s medical history for substance abuse or habits or document a review of the database that tracks controlled substance prescriptions for the first four years of the time period and for about five months of this time period, he wrote prescriptions for oxycodone and other controlled substances for the patient without evaluating him.
He also prescribed oxycodone to the patient’s wife for pain management without referring her to a pain management specialist. During the five-year time period, Otellin only conducted three urine drug screenings that would have revealed whether the patient’s wife was using the prescription as prescribed, diverting it to her husband, or using other drugs.
Three pharmacists complained to the Drug Enforcement Administration that Otellin’s prescribing practices appeared improper. The instances include, when Otellin prescribed the opioid medication buprenorphine at dosages above clinically effective levels. And when another patient died from an overdose because Otellin prescribed above-therapeutic buprenorphine, the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam, and the anti-seizure and pain medicine gabapentin to the patient. And another one of his patients passed away from an overdose due to Otellin prescribing, alprazolam, the sedative zolpidem and amphetamine salts, used to treat ADHD.
Otellin was apprehended in Armenia in September 2023, after he was believed to have fled to Russia to avoid prosecution following his indictment by a federal grandy jury in September 2022. The U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia worked with INTERPOL Washington to issue an Interpol Red Notice on Otellin.