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June 21, 2007

Jury selection begins in trial of oxycodone doctor

By Debbie Wachter Morris

Three years ago, three doctors were jailed for allegedly writing massive oxycodone prescriptions illegally and addicting dozens of patients.

The last of them — Dr. William Mangino — will stand trial this week.

Jury selection got off to a slow start yesterday afternoon for the case of the 63-year-old Mangino, a pain management doctor.

He faces 11 counts of acting as an accomplice in violating the state drug act, six counts of Medicaid fraud, one charge of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud and one count of conspiracy to violate the drug act.

His defense counsel, Attorney Thomas W. Leslie, said he expects jury selection to take a couple of days.

Leslie, who has represented Mangino since his arrest in September 2004, had previously petitioned the courts twice for a change of venue, arguing that because of extensive publicity in the case, his client would not get a fair trial.

He explained yesterday that Lawrence County Common Pleas President Judge Dominick Motto, who is presiding over the trial, will rule on the matter at the end of jury selection if the picking is unsuccessful.

“Hopefully we’ll get a jury and this will get started,” commented deputy attorney general Jeffrey Baxter, chief prosecutor for the case.

Mangino, who is originally from Philadelphia, has been living there again while he has been out of jail on bond, according to Leslie. He returned to New Castle for his trial and was in the courtroom yesterday.

Mangino was arrested along with chiropractor Thomas Wilkins and Philip G. Wagman, also a pain management doctor, whom he joined as partners in a Union Township clinic. The three had been under investigation for more than a year, according to state authorities.

They were accused of illegally prescribing massive quantities of highly addictive painkiller and other narcotics to patients who went to their office complex for treatment.

Patients reported brief doctor visits resulted in frequent and large prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet and other potentially addictive narcotics, agents alleged.

Evidence and testimony before a state fact-finding grand jury Sept. 23 revealed patients would stand in line outside the offices of Work Med and Chiro Med at 2017 W. State St. in the mornings, waiting to get prescriptions that grew in quantity to fulfill their growing addictions.

The investigation was initiated by the state attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Section with help from the Union Township police and the district attorney’s drug task force.

Wilkins 45, formerly of Mount Jackson Road, and Wagman, 49, of 1712 Gretchen Road, were convicted by a jury a year ago. Wilkins was sentenced in July to 10 to 30 years in state prison and fines of $846,000 plus $17,604 in prosecution costs. He is in the state correctional institution at Frackville.

Wagman was sentenced to 19 to 45 years in state prison plus $835,000 in fines and $17,604 in court costs. He is lodged in the Rockview State Correctional Institution in Centre County.

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