Hudson Valley Medical Worker Illegally Handed Out Oxycodone
A medical employee confessed she tried to act as a major trafficker in a scheme where allegedly over $600,000 worth of oxycodone was dispensed in the Hudson Valley.
On Tuesday, officials in Orange County announced 38-year-old Jodee O'Dell of Goshen pleaded guilty to attempted operating as a major trafficker.
O’Dell’s plea involved a scheme to obtain oxycodone pills to sell by creating false prescriptions at BAJA Medical Offices in Goshen where O’Dell was the office manager, and having accomplices, who were not patients of the practice, fill the prescriptions and give the majority of the pills to O’Dell and other accomplices.
After receiving a complaint from the medical practice, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office initiated an investigation into a group of individuals allegedly involved in a conspiracy to illegally obtain oxycodone by electronically issuing false prescriptions for the highly addictive narcotic drug.
As a result of the investigation, six, including O’Dell, were charged with felony conspiracy charges.
Felony complaints alleged the group caused 51,375 oxycodone pills, having a street value of over $625,852, to be illegally dispensed between January 6, 2015, and August 27, 2018.
“The large number of pills illegally dispensed from a medical practice in the Village of Goshen demonstrates how the opioid epidemic affects every community in the state without regard to socio-economic status,” Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler. “The abuse of oxycodone has helped fuel the opioid epidemic. Those who believe that it is safe to take oxycodone pills without a doctor’s order, because the pills are created by a pharmaceutical company, rather than being 'street drugs,' are tragically mistaken. There is a direct connection between the abuse of opioid pills and the abuse of heroin and the frequently lethal fentanyl that is often sold with it.”
O'Dell confessed during the six-month period between January 1, 2018, and June 28, 2018, the group caused 11,803 pills containing oxycodone, having a street value in excess of $182,752, to be illegally dispensed through the false prescriptions.
O’Dell is scheduled to be sentenced on August 29.
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