DENTON, Md. - A Georgetown, Delaware woman, co-owner of a Denton care clinic in Maryland, pleaded guilty in Baltimore today to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone.
According to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kristie Parker, 46, took advantage of her position as co-owner of Coastal Care Clinic to distribute controlled substances from 2016 to January 2021. The drugs were reportedly given through illegitimate prescriptions to employees, family members, and bogus “patients.” The Attorney’s Office says she did so with the help of the Clinic’s prescribers.
Parker would reportedly obtain codes used to electronically issue prescriptions for the drugs in large quantities. She was aware of four co-conspirator employees pooling pills together and selling them, according to the Attorney’s Office. Parker also received prescriptions for pills and sold them to others for illegal use and re-sale.
Urine toxicology screenings were routinely falsified, and employees of the Clinic would provide their own urine samples in place of patients. The illegitimate urine samples were used to hide the fact that the patients did not have prescribed drugs in their system, as they were reportedly selling them or consuming them faster than the prescriptions allowed, or had drugs like heroin or cocaine in their system, indicating substance abuse. Parker’s guilty plea includes an example of an employee being paid $100 for each time she provided a urine sample in place of a patient’s for a urine toxicology screening.
Other employees used patients with no pain issues to seek prescriptions, which the employees would then use to sell the prescribed pills. Parker was reportedly aware of this and profited off of it.
Upon the DEA first making contact with the Clinic in 2020, Parker faked entries on multiple patient files to include fake notations about physical exams which were never performed, the Attorney’s Office says.
Parker will now face up to 20 years in federal prison and be required to give up four firearms and over $1,000 in cash found in her home. Sentencing has been scheduled for November 15, 2023.