Queens doctor pleads guilty to conspiring to distribute oxycodone
Gracia Mayard, shown in a 2013 photo and pleaded guilty to illegally distributing thousands of oxycodone pills, was sentenced June 17, 2015 to 4 1/2 years in prison.
A Queens physician arrested last year on charges he illegally wrote prescriptions for thousands of oxycodone pills faces up to 121 months in prison in a plea agreement reached Friday, federal prosecutors said.
Gracia Mayard, 62, who had offices in Forest Hills and at his home in Cambria Heights, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute oxycodone.
Under the original charge of illegal distribution of oxycodone, Mayard faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Mayard said in court that he agreed to provide oxycodone prescriptions in the names of family and friends of his patients in exchange for cash. He also admitted in federal court in Central Islip to writing multiple prescriptions for persons he never examined in order for one of his patients "to obtain more oxycodone than he was supposed to be consuming."
He told the court that he understood that patient "was reselling a portion of the pills, nevertheless I continued to write prescriptions for him in exchange for cash."
Mayard also said that even after he surrendered his registration to write prescriptions to officials of the Drug Enforcement Administration, he still wrote prescriptions for oxycodone and sought to have prescriptions filled by a pharmacist on Long Island.
Both Mayard's attorney, Edward Kratt of Manhattan, and Eastern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Bode, declined to comment.
"Dr. Mayard tried to evade prescription reporting requirements in order to provide vast quantities of these powerful painkillers in exchange for cash," Eastern District U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. "Simply put, he acted as a drug dealer, not a doctor."
Mayard was denied bail June 5 by a federal judge who said he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Mayard was arrested by DEA agents in March 2013 after he had given up his license to prescribe narcotics, officials said.
The agents acted after getting a call from a Suffolk pharmacist who said a patient was trying to fill the doctor's prescription for the painkiller, officials said.
In arguing against releasing Mayard on bail, Bode said Mayard made between $1.2 million and $1.8 million on the sale of oxycodone prescriptions.
When agents arrested Mayard they found he had thousands of dollars in cash, and in his car was luggage, food, a cooler with his medication, and dry cleaning.
Mayard appeared to be planning to flee, prosecutors said at the time.
Bob Kessler covers federal law, including law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, IRS and ATF, as well as the federal courts.
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