A doctor who practiced in Niles until early 2022 pleaded guilty in Cleveland federal court this week to 31 counts of illegally prescribing patients opioids and other controlled substances, one count of illegally distributing controlled substances, and 20 counts of health care fraud.

According to court documents, from January 2015 through January 2022, Dr. Jeffrey Sutton, 65, doctor of osteopathy, knowingly prescribed medically unnecessary controlled substances to patients outside of the usual course of his practice and without a legitimate medical reason. In doing so, court documents state Sutton caused health care benefit programs to be fraudulently billed for both office visits and the prescriptions.

In other charges, Sutton also pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual acts with patients to whom he directly prescribed controlled substances, including during office visits. He also admitted to delivering dozens of oxycodone pills to the home of a patient with whom he had a sexual relationship.

Sutton, who headed the former Internal and Physical Medicine Clinic at 1250 Youngstown Warren Road, is scheduled to be sentenced 10 a.m. May 23 by Judge Christopher A. Boyko in U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio.

The clinic in Niles closed in January 2022 following an FBI search there.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Sutton prescribed opioid medications to patients for extended periods, including for more than a decade, with little change in regimen and despite knowing that the opioid therapy treatment had failed, the court documents state. Sutton also prescribed short-acting opioid therapy medications to patients for extended periods without establishing treatment goals, pain diagnoses, accurate examinations, and either without any medical imaging or with medical imaging that could not justify the opioid prescribing.

Court records show Sutton escalated opioid dosages to some patients at extreme levels, sometimes increasing the dosage by more than 1,000 percent and sometimes prescribing more than 22 times the level of opioids that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified as posing a risk of overdose.

In some instances, prosecutors accused Sutton of combining opioids with other medications such as benzodiazepines, a combination that has been known to cause serious risks of slowed or difficult breathing, coma and death.

Sutton also ignored documented behaviors that indicated patients were abusing or diverting prescribed controlled substances or abusing nonprescribed controlled substances such as cocaine and fentanyl.

In addition, Sutton admitted he ignored warnings provided by prescription drug management organizations, insurance carriers, and state authorities about his high prescribing and danger to patients, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He also admitted to ignoring and choosing not to act on patient requests to lower dosages.

Tip line …

Federal investigators are asking anyone who would like to alert them to experiences or observations of Dr. Jeffrey Sutton’s practice of medicine, or other issues, to contact the Cleveland FBI at 216-583-5353.