Merrick doctor to face October trial on pain pill charges

Dr. Michael Belfiore, who operates a family practice in Merrick, will head to trial in October, after a federal judge on Wednesday refused to dismiss charges that he improperly prescribed thousands of opioid pain medications to patients.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bianco also limited the scope of evidence that Belfiore will be able to use in his defense, and scheduled a hearing to determine whether the indictment against Belfiore was flawed and a new presentation must be made to the grand jury.

Belfiore was charged in 2014 with unlawfully prescribing oxycodone to an undercover Nassau County detective, and later faced further charges of illegally prescribing the drug to patients. Through his attorney, Tom Liotti, Belfiore is blaming any wrongdoing on deceptive marketing by opioid manufacturers and lax government regulation,

Belfiore wrote 5,000 prescriptions for 600,000 pain pills between January 2010 and March 2013, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

Liotti and Belfiore are attempting join a Suffolk County lawsuit against the major opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, in which the county is trying to recoup costs it has incurred in fighting the opioid and heroin epidemic. Liotti hopes that a settlement or victory for the county could help his defense of Belfiore.

Attorneys for Suffolk County and Purdue have argued against Belfiore’s intervention, saying that it would only further complicate the case, and would have no bearing on the criminal charges against him.

Liotti also has introduced marketing materials used by Purdue in the 90s in the criminal case in order to defend Belfiore and prove that he, along with many other doctors, was led to believe that opioid medications did not pose a significant risk to his patients.

Judge Bianco, on Wednesday, ruled that Liotti would only be able to present materials that were produced before Belfiore’s alleged crimes, and that he would likely have been relying upon for information on at the time.

Two videos produced by Purdue, which the Herald has viewed and previously reported on, will be able to be shown to the jury, as long as Belfiore testifies that he depended on the information in them at the relevant time.

The video features patients and doctors extolling the virtues of oxycodone and reporting that the risk of addiction is “much less than 1 percent.”

Liotti said in an interview on Thursday that he “absolutely” plans on showing the videos to the jury and bringing in experts to testify as to what doctors relied upon at the time.

Liotti’s plan to subpoena several high-ranking government officials from the U.S. Justice and Health and Human Services departments was denied. Bianco said that Liotti would also not be able to use information and reports regarding the opioid epidemic published by the government after Belfiore’s alleged crimes.

“You are free to present materials that Dr. Belfiore relied upon at the time, and produce expert testimony to that,” Bianco said. However, Belfiore will not be allowed to use the Suffolk County case against Purdue in his defense.

“I don’t think it’s relevant to the defense, and any relevance is outweighed by confusion, prejudicing the jury or turning this into a trial against Purdue,” he said.

Bianco also dismissed Liotti’s motion to dismiss based on selective prosecution.

“Now he’s arguing that doctors are being selectively prosecuted … but Dr. Belfiore was selected for prosecution based on his illegal conduct,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Rose.

Bianco did agree with Liotti that the indictment against Belfiore could be flawed because of its language. According to Liotti, because the charges do not make clear that Belfiore is accused of prescribing the opioids “without a legitimate medical purpose” — something Liotti refers to as a “grey area” — a new presentation must be made to the grand jury, or else the charges must be dismissed.

“[Belfiore] can only be charged if he prescribed … without a legitimate medical purpose,” Liotti said on Thursday. “They have a burden to show that it was without a legitimate medical purpose; they have the burden of showing that as an element to the grand jury.”

Liotti and federal prosecutors will be meeting in June with Judge Bianco to review the grand jury indictment and will soon hold a conference on a motion to suppress statements Belfiore made to law enforcement when he was arrested.

Belfiore’s trial date is tentatively scheduled for the week of October 23.