Former West Palm Beach Police Officer Dewitt McDonald pleaded guilty to selling illegal drugs to fellow police officers while on duty.
According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, McDonald, 45, was running two separate businesses selling anabolic steroids and other prescription drugs while also making a living as a police officer.
McDonald would make deliveries while on duty and in uniform from the businesses -- Prime Performance Wellness Centers Inc., located in Lake Worth, and Prime Health and Rejuvenation Clinic, located in Wellington.
McDonald had been a police officer for 20 years but had a long history of misconduct, including a suspension for purchasing steroids from the PowerMedica pharmacy in Deerfield Beach.
He was fired from the force in 2013.
According to prosecutors, McDonald ran his businesses as places that sold testosterone and HGH, but he also illegally sold anabolic steroids and prescription drugs between September 2011 and April 2013.
McDonald also forged doctors' signatures on prescriptions, altered prescriptions, and illegally split larger vials into smaller ones, according to prosecutors. He also signed his own name on prescription labels that listed doctors' names.
McDonald was charged with carrying his Smith & Wesson MP40 weapon while making his illegal drug deliveries, according to federal prosecutors.
Court documents say that McDonald made deliveries, with his gun, to another officer within the West Palm Beach Police Department and then another delivery to a customer in Palm Beach County on March 5, 2013.
On Wednesday, McDonald pleaded guilty to a federal charge of carrying a gun while committing a drug-trafficking crime.
The City of West Palm Beach released a statement after McDonald was arrested earlier this month.
"The case involving former officer McDonald first came to the attention of the city and it was the city that then handed it to federal investigators," the statement reads. "We were fully aware of the upcoming arrest, and have worked with federal investigators since we originally handed them the case. McDonald was fired seven months ago."
McDonald was released on a $250,000 bond until his sentencing. U.S. District Judge James Cohn ordered McDonald not to possess a gun or leave South Florida without permission from court authorities.
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