The Arkansas State Medical Board on Friday suspended the licenses of four doctors charged this week in a federal investigation into prescription drug abuse.
In a special meeting in Little Rock -- with most members participating via conference call -- the board voted unanimously to suspend the licenses of Richard Johns, 49, of Little Rock; Jerry Reifeiss, 60, of Conway; Felicie Wyatt, 41, of Memphis; and Shawn Michael Brooks, 44, whose mailing address is listed in medical board records as being in Sandy, Utah.
The doctors' licenses will be suspended pending hearings in August on suspected violations of the state's Medical Practices Act, the board's attorney, Kevin O'Dwyer, said.
The board also ordered a physician's assistant, Aaron Paul Borengasser, 35, to appear at a hearing in August on suspected violations stemming from the investigation.
"I think it was important that we do this to protect the public safety," Dr. Joseph Beck, the board's chairman said.
The four doctors and Borengasser are among 280 people, including 140 in Arkansas, facing charges as a result of Operation Pillution, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's largest-ever prescription drug investigation.
Johns was arrested Monday in Lonoke County after being accused of writing nearly 200 fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions.
He was released from Lonoke County jail Tuesday on $50,000 bond and faces 187 counts of fraudulent practice, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Reifeiss was arrested along with several others Wednesday during a raid of the K.J. Medical Clinic in west Little Rock.
U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer said Wednesday that people at the clinic had illegally written prescriptions for about 287,500 hydrocodone tablets and 200,000 Xanax tablets in the past 10 months and that many of the prescriptions had been filled at Bowman Curve Pharmacy, which was also raided Wednesday.
According to an indictment filed in federal court May 6, Reifeiss and Brooks were prescribing physicians at the clinic, while Wyatt was a collaborative physician for Borengasser.
The indictment charges Reifeiss, Brooks, Wyatt and Borengasser with conspiring to distribute hydrocodone and other pain medication without an "effective" prescription from June through May 5.
Reifeiss is charged with distributing hydrocodone without an effective prescription March 25.
Brooks is charged with illegally distributing the drug Dec. 19 and March 4.
Reifeiss and Borengasser pleaded innocent to the charges Thursday in a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe and were ordered to be released on their own recognizance pending a trial before U.S. District Judge James Moody on June 29.
Wyatt and Brooks are scheduled to make initial appearances before Volpe on Thursday, said Chris Givens, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Metro on 05/23/2015