LOCKPORT – A Youngstown doctor who last month surrendered his medical license and was sentenced to home confinement in a federal prescription fraud case pleaded not guilty Monday to three felony counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance.
Daniel C. Gillick, 63, refused a plea offer to state charges Monday in Niagara County Court and instead was taken to Porter Town Court. Town Justice David Truesdale released him on his own recognizance pending a March 4 court date, although if Gillick is indicted before then, that appearance will be canceled.
In an interview with Drug Enforcement Administration agents leading up to his federal charges, Gillick admitted using cocaine since 2010.
Monday, the state Attorney General’s Office accused Gillick, an emergency room doctor, of writing three prescriptions in 2010 for the painkiller Lortab for a Medicaid client who said Gillick had never examined him.
The patient, identified in court papers only as a man who lived near Gillick in Youngstown and knew him socially, said that Gillick learned that the patient was using the painkillers.
The felony complaint says Gillick offered to give the man Lortab prescriptions if the man would give half of the Lortab pills to Gillick when he had the prescriptions filled.
The prescriptions, dated June 16, Aug. 11 and Sept. 26, 2010, were written on prescription pads from Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital in Bath, where Gillick was working at the time. The Medicaid client told investigators that he has never been to that hospital.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office said she did not know what Gillick did with the drugs he allegedly received back from the patient.
Gillick’s attorney, Frank Bogulski, said his client denies the charges.
“He pled not guilty. We think the charges are weak,” Bogulski said.
In December in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, Gillick was sentenced to two years’ probation and six months of home confinement for a prescription scheme. He pleaded guilty to health care fraud and aiding and abetting the obtaining of a controlled substance by fraud.
Federal court papers show the arrangement allowed his then-girlfriend to fraudulently receive a free prescription for Dilaudid, a narcotic painkiller, in August and September 2011 through the emergency room at Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls, where Gillick was working at the time. He also had been working at Medina Memorial Hospital during that period.
Gillick and the woman, Christine Guilfoyle, 28, also were charged with federal cocaine possession misdemeanors on Nov. 27, 2012. Court papers said cocaine base was found on the seat of a vehicle registered to Gillick, which Guilfoyle was driving in Niagara Falls. DEA agents then followed it to Gillick’s home.
Guilfoyle pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and was sentenced to one year of supervised release and a fine of $1,025.
News Staff Reporter Henry L. Davis contributed to this report. email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
Daniel C. Gillick, 63, refused a plea offer to state charges Monday in Niagara County Court and instead was taken to Porter Town Court. Town Justice David Truesdale released him on his own recognizance pending a March 4 court date, although if Gillick is indicted before then, that appearance will be canceled.
In an interview with Drug Enforcement Administration agents leading up to his federal charges, Gillick admitted using cocaine since 2010.
Monday, the state Attorney General’s Office accused Gillick, an emergency room doctor, of writing three prescriptions in 2010 for the painkiller Lortab for a Medicaid client who said Gillick had never examined him.
The patient, identified in court papers only as a man who lived near Gillick in Youngstown and knew him socially, said that Gillick learned that the patient was using the painkillers.
The felony complaint says Gillick offered to give the man Lortab prescriptions if the man would give half of the Lortab pills to Gillick when he had the prescriptions filled.
The prescriptions, dated June 16, Aug. 11 and Sept. 26, 2010, were written on prescription pads from Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital in Bath, where Gillick was working at the time. The Medicaid client told investigators that he has never been to that hospital.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office said she did not know what Gillick did with the drugs he allegedly received back from the patient.
Gillick’s attorney, Frank Bogulski, said his client denies the charges.
“He pled not guilty. We think the charges are weak,” Bogulski said.
In December in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, Gillick was sentenced to two years’ probation and six months of home confinement for a prescription scheme. He pleaded guilty to health care fraud and aiding and abetting the obtaining of a controlled substance by fraud.
Federal court papers show the arrangement allowed his then-girlfriend to fraudulently receive a free prescription for Dilaudid, a narcotic painkiller, in August and September 2011 through the emergency room at Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls, where Gillick was working at the time. He also had been working at Medina Memorial Hospital during that period.
Gillick and the woman, Christine Guilfoyle, 28, also were charged with federal cocaine possession misdemeanors on Nov. 27, 2012. Court papers said cocaine base was found on the seat of a vehicle registered to Gillick, which Guilfoyle was driving in Niagara Falls. DEA agents then followed it to Gillick’s home.
Guilfoyle pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and was sentenced to one year of supervised release and a fine of $1,025.
News Staff Reporter Henry L. Davis contributed to this report. email: tprohaska@buffnews.com