Baldwin Harbor doc indicted in pill scam

A Baldwin Harbor doctor and another man were indicted Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to distribute the painkiller oxycodone, according to officials.

Dr. Leonard Stambler, and his housemate, Chris Adams, face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the charge.

According to related court papers filed in federal court in Central Islip, Stambler, who was arrested Monday, did not have an office, but was seen by the Drug Enforcement Administration agents more than 20 times from March to November meeting with "purported patients" in his car, outside his home or at their homes, and leaving prescriptions on his front porch.

Stambler is the focus of an ongoing probe into the illegal distribution of oxycodone in Nassau County and "was prescribing large numbers of oxycodone pills . . . to patients who were believed to be reselling and/or abusing this controlled substance," the papers said.

In one instance, Stambler and Adams were observed by DEA agents driving to an unidentified pharmacy in East Rockaway last month, where Adams filled a Stambler prescription for 200 oxycodone pills, the papers said.

The prescription was for Adams' otherwise unidentified common-law wife, the papers said.

Stambler and Adams then drove to a nearby location on Morton Avenue in East Rockaway, where agents believe he handed over some of the pills to another man, the papers said.

Agents then stopped the car and Adams told them that he had said to Stambler that he needed to drop off 20 of the pills to the unidentified man. According to Adams, Stambler replied, "I don't want to see it and I don't want to know about it," the papers said.

Adams also admitted that he taken 60 of the pills from his wife's prescription and put them in his own medication bottle, the papers said.

Stambler, for his part, told the agents when he was interviewed that Adams had told him they were driving to meet a friend of Adams', and that he was aware that "sometimes they exchange pills with each other when one of them runs out; so I suppose he [Adams] was dropping off pills he owed ," the papers said.

When agents asked Stambler if he thought, "as a physician," if it was OK that Adams was giving pills to another person, Stambler said the other man was a patient to whom he also prescribed oxycodone, the papers said.

Stambler also admitted that he saw Adams take 60 of the pills he had prescribed for his wife for his own use, the papers said, adding, "Yes, he did that in the car in front of me because [Adams] shares his pills with his wife," the papers said.

Stambler's attorney, Gary Schoer, of Syosset, declined to comment, as did federal prosecutor Allen Bode. Adams' attorney could not be reached.