Baldwin man, 70, gets probation in narcotics distribution

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An aide to a former Baldwin physician was sentenced Wednesday to 5 years’ probation for his part in an oxycodone distribution scheme.

Robert Hachemeister of Baldwin received the sentence after pleading guity in 2013 to conspiring with his former boss, Dr. William J. Conway, to distribute the narcotic.

In his guilty plea in 2013, Hachemeister acknowledged that he and Conway knowingly issued prescriptions to individuals who were addicted to oxycodone.

In a presentencing letter to Judge Leonard Wexler, Hachemeister’s attorney, Anthony M. LaPinta, asked for leniency.

He noted Hachemeister’s military service, his lengthy ties to Baldwin, including his work as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician, his membership in the Baldwin American Legion Post 246 and the Freeport-Baldwin Elks Lodge, and his past employment at the old Detenbaum’s department store in Baldwin, at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside and as a motor equipment operator at Baldwin’s Sanitary District No. 2.

The letter also included an attachment of 34 letters submitted by Hachemeister’s family and friends attesting to his character. The letters were from individuals including the Rev. Robert Holz of St. Christopher’s Church and Christopher W. Schwenker III of the Baldwin Fire Department.

The letter also noted that Hachemeister, 70, never profited financially from the scheme and said that the government “concedes that there is absolutely no evidence linking Mr. Hachemeister to the deaths of Giovanni Manzella or Christopher Basmas.”

Mazella, of Long Beach, and Basmas, of Hicksville, each died of an overdose of oxycodone two days after receiving prescriptions from Conway.

Conway was sentenced to eight years for distributing oxycodone and conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.