Dentist charged with illegally distributing drugs
Wareham dentist Dr. Steven Miller was behind bars Tuesday night, accused of trading drugs for sexual favors with his patients, and distributing Vicodin and Valium to people not in his care.
If convicted, Miller faces up to ten years in prison and a $1 million fine. He voluntarily surrendered his dental license.
Miller was arrested when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, raided his office Tuesday. In his affidavit, Special Agent Todd Prough states that a cooperating witness told an agent in September that Miller “was prescribing controlled substances without a valid medical purpose, namely in exchange for sexual favors, such as the feeling of breasts or buttocks.” An investigation ensued.
Prough’s statement indicated that a meeting organized by agents between two cooperating witnesses and Miller took place at Borders Bookstore at Wareham Crossing. The affidavit alleges that during the meeting, the cooperating witnesses asked Miller if he could help them get Vicodin. Miller told them that they would first have to register as patients, and said: “I have a very bad reputation at writing drugs. A couple pharmacies won’t even fill my prescriptions.”
This was followed by a meeting at Miller’s office to fill out paperwork, during which he slapped the buttocks of the witness, and asked to see her breasts in exchange for Vicodin, after she had offered to pay him cash, according to the affidavit. He told the witness to return for follow up appointments later that week “so I can justify what I did.”
This was followed by another meeting in December at a Dunkin Donuts, according to the affidavit, with DEA Task Force Officer Paul Callahan posing as one of the cooperating witness’ boyfriend. Callahan asked Miller, “Can you hook me up with a script like her?” Miller indicated that he would simply need to fill out some paper work.
Callahan soon secured a prescription of his own. Miller stated more than once his desire to document everything he did, according to the affidavit.
Out of the 323 people for whom Miller wrote prescriptions, nine were found to be receiving an unusually large amount of Vicodin, Percocet, and Valium in relatively brief periods of time, the affidavit indicates. One patient received eighty 10mg Percocet within a six day period.
Joanne Byron, a friend of Miller’s for twenty years, said that “he’s an upstanding citizen,” noting that he had just recently read at a Reading is Fundamental event at Minot Forest Elementary School. “I’m shocked and disappointed," she said. "I had no clue."