Two men sentenced for running pill mills

Published 10:01 am Friday, November 27, 2015

CINCINNATI — Two Ohio men were sentenced in U.S. District Court this week for running “pill mills.”

Christopher Stegawski, 65, of Cleveland, was sentenced Monday to 160 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release, and John Randy Callihan, 58, of Portsmouth, was sentenced Tuesday to 60 months in prison and five years of supervised release, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Carter M. Stewart.

According to court testimony, Stegawski and Callihan owned and/or operated a business originally known as Eastside Medical Specialist in Dayton from November 2009 until May 2012. The business moved to Lucasville in February 2010 and the name was changed to Lucasville Medical Specialist.

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Stewart’s office said Stegawski took over ownership of the Lucasville business and listed his partner Callihan, as an employee.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Stegawski represented himself as a chronic pain management doctor at the Dayton and Lucasville clinics as well as an unnamed clinic located in South Point, and that they operated as “pill mills” by selling prescriptions for controlled substances, mostly oxycodone, without a legitimate need.

Stegawski and Callihan were charged by a grand jury in 2012, and Callihan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and dispense prescription drugs and money laundering.

A jury convicted Stegawski in February 2015 of one count of conspiracy to distribute and dispense prescription drugs, one count of conspiracy to launder money and two counts of maintaining a place for illegal distribution of drugs.