Crime

Guilty plea for Franklin Square drug doctor

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A medical doctor with offices in Franklin Square pleaded guilty on Aug. 24 to conspiring to distribute oxycodone, a highly addictive painkiller, officials said.

Noel Blackman, 68, of Valley Stream, was arrested on Feb. 7 and charged with writing prescriptions for more than 365,000 oxycodone pills. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine at his sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 6.

As part of his guilty plea, Blackman admitted that he wrote the prescriptions for people who did not require the drug for medical conditions, in exchange for cash. He also forfeited over $500,000 in profits from writing 2,487 prescriptions between 2015 and February 2016.

“Blackman violated his professional oath to put his patients’ legitimate medical needs first, and instead chose to line his pockets with the proceeds from the sale of illegal prescriptions for oxycodone, a highly addictive drug that has been linked to the rise in heroin trafficking and other social ills in our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers. “Together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to vigorously prosecute illegal prescription drug distribution.”

Blackman, who is also a former health minister of Guyana, was aboard a plane taxiing at Kennedy Airport around midnight on Feb. 7, en route to Guyana, when federal agents boarded the plane, removed him and arrested him. Authorities found more than $30,000 concealed in his luggage.

Blackman’s office, at 907 Hempstead Turnpike, has been closed since last December because of building code violations. According to the New York State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, however, Blackman wrote more than 30 prescriptions for oxycodone the day his office was closed.

According to court documents, Blackman told agents after his arrest that it was possible that some of his patients were addicted to oxycodone. He would charge office visitors $300, and on a normal day, he said, he would see roughly 100 patients, “which he estimated was about one patient every six minutes,” according to court documents.

In December, Franklin Square residents began documenting suspicious activity around Blackman’s office at odd hours of the day. People were photographed loitering outside, and debris including empty pill bottles was found on the street. Residents alerted authorities, including State Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square), and the Town of Hempstead ultimately issued building code violations and shut down the business.

Calls to Blackman’s attorney, John E. Bergendahl, had not been returned as the Herald went to press.