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YOUNGSTOWN -- A Niles doctor is accused of arranging a scheme that exchanged prescription drugs for sexual favors, according to a bill of information filed Monday in U.S. Northern Ohio District Court.
Jeffrey Sutton of Sutton Internal and Physical Medicine Clinic faces 32 counts of dispensing controlled substances and 20 counts of health care fraud. Court documents allege the activity happened between January 2015 and January 2022.
Seven patients are alleged to have been victimized by Sutton. Of the seven, three are said to have engaged in sex with Sutton in exchange for drugs during office visits, the court document states.
The bill of information alleges Sutton enriched himself by attracting and maintaining patients that seek prescriptions for medically unnecessary controlled substances.
The government also factored into Sutton's alleged scheme obtaining reimbursement for office visits from health care benefits programs. During these visits, Sutton is said to have issued prescriptions for medically controlled substances patients did not need.
The filing states Sutton would prescribe high levels of opioids combined with benzodiazepines, issued outside a professional practice. These fraudulent prescriptions then were billed to the health care benefit program, the document states.
Around March 2019, the filing states a patient was admitted to a local hospital for an "altered mental state" and was diagnosed with substance abuse and addiction.
When the patient returned around April 2019, Sutton is alleged by the government to have stopped the treatment for addiction and started the patient back on high-dosage opioids.