Judge grants bail to Manhattan doctor who illegally prescribed pain pills

A Manhattan doctor sentenced to 20 years in prison for indiscriminately prescribing pain pills to addicted patients, including one who died of an overdose in 2016, was granted bail while his appeal is pending, on Tuesday by the Brooklyn federal judge who imposed the lengthy jail term.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie said in a three-page opinion that 84-year-old Dr. Martin Tesher’s age and ill health — he has heart and kidney problems — required caution in imprisoning him on the mandatory minimum 20-year sentence before a federal appeals court looks at the case.

“As his life draws to a close, he is a convicted felon who is disgraced in his profession, his reputation now sacrificed,” Dearie wrote. “ … To incarcerate him now, to separate him from his ailing wife before a higher authority has scrutinized the trial record will in my judgment inflict an added punishment that cannot be undone or remedied.”

Tesher, a long-time family practitioner on the Upper East Side whose website described him as a “good old-fashioned family doctor,” was accused in 2017 of prescribing more than 2 million pain pills over five years.

He was convicted at trial last year of nine counts of prescribing oxycodone and fentanyl without a legitimate medical purpose to five patients he had reason to believe were addicted, and one count of prescribing the painkillers to a patient who died — Nicholas Benedetto, 27, of Staten Island.

Prosecutors, who opposed bail, said Tesher prescribed fentanyl and oxycodone patches for Benedetto although he tested positive for cocaine, heroin, methadone, oxycodone and fentanyl. Two days later, he was found dead from a fatal combination of oxycodone and fentanyl.

Ronald Russo, Tesher’s lawyer, said his defense was that Benedetto had not followed instructions on use of the prescription medications, and praised Dearie for insuring that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviews the legal issues before Tesher serves what could be a death sentence.

“I was very pleased with the result,” Russo said. “There are reasons to be optimistic that the 2nd Circuit may reverse his conviction.”

Dearie said Tesher spent most of his life helping patients without incident, and presented no risk of flight and no danger to the community because his medical license was revoked.

“Why things went wrong … is a mystery, at least to me,” the judge wrote.

The judge said the evidence at trial was “compelling,” but made it clear he was uneasy with the 20-year mandatory prison sentence, which Tesher only faced, he said, because he went to trial instead of accepting a more lenient plea deal.

“The court was required by statute to impose a 20-year sentence on a gravely ill 84-year-old man for an unintended death of a patient who abused the prescribed medication causing his death,” he wrote. “Such circumstances will appropriately trigger very careful scrutiny of the trial record.”

The government can appeal Dearie’s decision to let Tesher remain free during his appeal. Prosecutors declined comment on Tuesday. The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration's Long Island Tactical Diversion Squad.