Two Doctors Charged in Overdose Deaths From Broward Pill Mills

See also: Chris and Jeff George's Pill Mill Operation: Your Pulp Reader.Two doctors who prescribed pills at the South Florida pain clinics of Chris and Jeff George have been charged with dealing the drugs that played a role in the deaths of nine patients. They were originally indicted (with 30...

By Rich Abdill

July 23, 2012

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See also: Chris and Jeff George's Pill Mill Operation: Your Pulp Reader.

Two doctors who prescribed pills at the South Florida pain clinics of Chris and Jeff George have been charged with dealing the drugs that played a role in the deaths of nine patients. They were originally indicted (with 30 others, including 11 doctors) back in August 2011 as part of the investigation into the brothers' clinics.

Prosecutors say Parkland 42-year-old Cynthia Cadet put in orders for more than 876,000 pain pills between late 2008 and March 2010 and is linked to seven deaths. Joseph Castronuovo, a 72-year-old doctor from Key Largo, allegedly accounted for another 389,000 pills and two deaths. They were allegedly paid on a per-patient basis to encourage pushing as many people through as possible and actually used rubber stamps to fill out prescription forms with predetermined dosages.

The two allegedly made about $1.3 million on their way to facilitating the deaths of nine people.

Cadet allegedly worked primarily at American Pain, which kicked out around 67,000 prescriptions in about 20 months of operation. Estimates put the percentage of out-of-state patients at around 80 percent; addicts were coming in from as far away as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio to get their fix because those states had centralized databases to detect doctor-shoppers. Castronuovo worked at Executive Pain, in Wilton Manors.

All told, police estimate the George clinics dished out around 20 million pain pills; Christopher George got 17 years in prison earlier this year, and his twin brother, Jeffrey, got 15 and a half.

Here are the names of the overdose deaths tied to Castronuovo and Cadet and the dates of the prescriptions:

12/31/08: Stacy Edward Mason
3/30/09: Tommy Wayne Harris
6/29/09: Michael Grant
7/16/09: Alice Marie Moore
10/28/09: Patricia Marcus
12/4/09: Stephen Andrew Wooten
12/7/09: Bobby Shane Romine
12/28/09: David Keith Coffmann
1/15/10: Shawn Michael Harper

Cadet is also charged with illegally prescribing a laundry list of anabolic steroids at L.A. Health and Rejuvenation, a company with a website promising to help men with "weight gain, lost libido, fatigue, stress, energy, muscle mass, and body fat" and male menopause.

Both doctors face life in prison.

Cadet Indictment

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