Former Nassau jail doc charged in drug sales

A Cold Spring Harbor physician and former medical director at the Nassau County jail is accused of selling prescriptions for up to $15 million worth of addictive painkillers without performing medical exams, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Martin Roginsky, 82, was charged Sunday with 10 felony counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance. He faces up to five and a half years in prison if convicted on all the charges.

Roginsky worked as an endocrinologist at the Nassau University Medical Center for 36 years before becoming medical director at the county's jail in 1999. He was fired from that position two years later, in the wake of an inmate death and critical state and federal reports on the quality of care.

A man who answered the door of Roginsky's home yesterday afternoon said "Oh my God," after a reporter identified himself and asked to speak with Roginsky. The man went back in the house and returned moments later, saying Roginsky had "nothing to say."

According to Rice, Roginsky is charged with selling $261,000 worth of opiate painkillers like OxyContin, Oxycodone and Roxycodone to undercover Rockville Centre police officers from his Rockville Centre office without examining the buyers. The street value of the drugs is between $10 million and $15 million, Rice said.

"So-called doctors like this defendant are the reason why so many of our young people are getting hooked on opiate-based painkillers, and eventually heroin," Rice said in a statement released by her office.

Roginsky was represented at his arraignment by Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, Rice's office said. Arraignment information could not be immediately obtained Sunday.