Pahrump doctor loses license after conviction in oxycodone prescription scheme
The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners has revoked the license of a physician accused of writing more than 600 fake prescriptions, providing more than 70,000 oxycodone pills for nonmedical purposes.
Dr. Simmon Lee Wilcox, who practiced in Utah and Nevada, was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute the powerful pain-relieving drug and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance following a January trial in U.S. District Court in Utah. He was sentenced to 100 months — more than eight years — in federal prison and three years of supervised release, according to court documents.
Wilcox appealed the guilty verdict in May and this month also sought to delay his scheduled date to report to prison — Aug. 12.
The Nevada medical board said because of a settlement agreement reached with the family and emergency medicine doctor in June, his license was not revoked until after the appeal he filed to stay out of prison was rejected.
Wilcox was not considered an imminent threat to public harm and so was permitted to practice medicine in Nevada after the guilty verdict, though he did not do so, according to medical board spokesmen.
The prosecution had argued for a sentence of 188 months imprisonment and three years supervised release for Wilcox, who they argued provided prescriptions to individuals under fake names as payment for services between July 2010 and March 2013.
The prescriptions were filled in Nevada and Utah pharmacies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah.
Prosecutors claimed Wilcox was having trouble paying back a $50,000 loan he took out in 2009 to buy a clinic in St. George, Utah.
Wilcox was one of six people charged in an October 2013 federal grand jury indictment.
The five others pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and said they conspired with Wilcox to use his license to provide the prescriptions, creating false identification documents to carry out the ruse.
An attorney for Wilcox could not be reached for comment.
Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.
