PAULS VALLEY, Okla. – A doctor who was arrested in March is facing five more felony charges related to a illegal prescription drug scheme.
Investigators say William Dale Wright was a cardiologist at Pauls Valley General Hospital when he was caught.
“A patient has been getting scripts from a doctor, filling the scripts and then giving half of the scripts back to the doctor in exchange for things such as not having to pay for that doctor’s visit,” said Mark Woodward, with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. “Since then, our investigators have continued to look into this doctor’s practice, look at his prescribing history, look at the patient’s prescribing history and had been able to document that this had been taking place going back into last year.”
The hospital says the news came as both a shock and a disappointment.
“We spent a lot of time with Dr. Wright working on building up the practice and getting patients to come here,” said Nathan Staggs, CEO of Pauls Valley General Hospital. “He’s a phenomenal doctor. The patients loved him. We saved a lot of lives here. So, for him to have this issue and to do this is disappointing and frustrating.”
Court documents say Wright allegedly wrote prescriptions for Xanax, Oxycodone and Soma, and would have patients pick them up from different pharmacies. He would then split the pills with the patient.
“Both of them were getting something out of this arrangement,” said Woodward. “Whether it’s a street dealer and you’re talking about cocaine or meth or whether it’s a physician, it’s not something you can just do recreationally from time to time. That addiction gets a hold and you’ve got to have a reliable source. And in this particular case, and in some of these cases, it’s a doctor.”