Baldwin doctor sentenced to eight years

A Baldwin doctor was sentenced in federal court on Oct. 2 to eight years in prison for illegally distributing oxycodone, an addictive opioid painkiller.

Dr. William Conway, 71, who was arrested in June 2012, pleaded guilty 13 months later to conspiring to illegally distribute oxycodone to patients who, according to officials, he knew were addicts, without performing any meaningful medical examination.

U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Wexler sentenced Conway, whose office in Baldwin Medical Plaza was raided in March 2012. According to officials, he illegally distributed nearly 800,000 oxycodone pills over a three-and-a-half-year period — writing 5,554 prescriptions between January 2009 and November 2011 alone.

Conway’s attorney, Richard Langone, said the eight-year sentence was “quite harsh for a man who has spent his whole life trying to help people.”

Conway surrendered his Drug Enforcement Administration registration authorizing him to prescribe controlled substances, officials said, after his arrest — but continued to engage in the conspiracy to illegally distribute oxycodone.

Federal officials said that Giovanni Manzella, a 34-year-old from Long Beach, died of an overdose of oxycodone on April 23, 2011, less than 48 hours after Conway provided him with two prescriptions totaling 450 pills.

At a hearing before Wexler in May, the government presented evidence that Conway prescribed large quantities of oxycodone to Manzella, for no legitimate medical reason. Records showed that Conway issued Manzella five prescriptions, for more than 800 pills, over a six-month period, with little or no examination or diagnostic testing, or any effort to ensure that the patient was not abusing the narcotic.

Wexler ruled last month that Conway was responsible for Manzella’s death. He found that the government’s evidence “amply demonstrates that Conway prescribed oxycodone to Manzella for no legitimate medical purpose, and that Manzella died as a result of using the oxycodone prescribed by him.”