‘Doctor shopping’ charges against former Williamsburg police officer dismissed

Charges against a former Williamsburg Police Officer of "doctor shopping" in order to obtain prescription painkillers illegally have been dropped after a grand jury failed to issue an indictment.

Whitley Circuit Judge Paul Braden issued the order last Thursday to dismiss the criminal case against Brad Boyd and return the $7,500 cash bond posted as a condition of his pretrial release.

Boyd was arrested in late November 2009 following an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Branch of the state Inspector General’s Office. A probe into Boyd’s activities was initiated after Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird contacted the Inspector General’s Office saying he suspected Boyd of "doctor shopping" – a term typically used to describe when someone goes to multiple physicians to get inappropriate amounts of drugs, usually painkillers, and not providing full information to each doctor about what they have been prescribed. He is officially charged with knowingly withholding information from a practitioner in order to get controlled substances.

Chris Johnson, an agent with the Inspector General’s Office, used the state’s prescription controlled substance tracking database, called KASPER, in order to ascertain that Boyd had visited Dr. Michael Perkins, in Williamsburg, and Dr. Truman Perry, of Corbin, during five separate overlapping periods from March through July of last year. Each time he was prescribed 120 Ultram (Tramadol) pills by Perkins and 60 Percocet 10/650 pills by Perry. Johnson said Ultram is a Schedule IV controlled substance and Percocet is a Schedule II controlled substance. Drugs are typically "scheduled" according to their potential addictiveness – the lower the number, the more addictive a substance is considered to be.

Investigators contend that Boyd did not inform either Perry or Perkins what the other was prescribing and that the two drugs would not usually be taken together. Both are painkillers.

Perry and Perkins both signed questionnaires/affidavits saying they felt Boyd had deceived them into prescribing the drugs to him. Johnson said he also interviewed the pharmacists that filled Boyd’s prescriptions.

Boyd’s attorney, Paul Croley, said it is his understanding that the special prosecutor in the case presented evidence to the grand jury and that no indictment was returned. He did not know if it would be prosecuted further.

The special prosecutor, Bell County Commonwealth’s Attorney Karen Blondell, could not be reached for comment.

Whitley County Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said the case can be presented again to a grand jury, but added that prosecutors don’t normally make multiple attempts to seek an indictment if a first try isn’t successful. There is no statute of limitations on felony offenses in the state of Kentucky.

At a preliminary hearing in December, Croley appeared to put forward two arguments that would likely be cornerstones of Boyd’s defense: that his client was taking two different drugs to treatment different causes and sources of pain, and that he was not aware of a recent change in the law that made Ultram (Tramadol) a controlled substance.

Boyd served as an officer with the Williamsburg Police Department from April 1999 until Aug. 2009. Prior to resigning from the department, he was placed on suspension in late July after failing a drug test. He tested positive for opiates. In 2008, he was suspended for four days without pay for getting drunk in a Corbin bar. Between the two suspensions, he received a promotion.