A federal grand jury has indicted an 80-year-old Hilo doctor for prescribing inordinate amounts of powerful painkillers to patients “without a legitimate medical purpose.”
The grand jury indicted Dr. Ernest Bade of the Bade Medical Clinic on Wednesday on 40 counts of “unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii Kenji Price at a news conference at the Prince Kuhio Federal Building in Honolulu on Thursday.
Bade was licensed to practice medicine in Hawaii and operated a medical clinic at 260 Osorio Lane in Hilo.
The indictment also charged four of Bade’s employees, who were also described as his patients, with alleged conspiracy to either distribute or fraudulently obtain controlled substances.
An investigation was initiated in May 2015 after several sources told law enforcement that Bade was prescribing unusually large amounts of powerful narcotics, sedatives and opioids.
According to the indictment, Bade prescribed an undercover agent posing as a patient with multiple prescriptions of controlled substances after conducting only “cursory examinations.” He also provided the agent with refills.
Price said Bade wrote prescriptions for his patients with no legitimate medical purpose. The prescriptions were for painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and fentanyl.
Yvonne Caitano, 54, Bade’s personal assistant and office manager, was charged with conspiring to distribute and dispense controlled substances.
Price said Bade often wrote prescriptions for an opioid drug and another drug that, when taken with the opioid, enhanced the “high” a person would experience from the opioid. “These types of combinations carry a significant risk of accidental overdose, and doctors generally avoid prescribing them.”
The indictment also alleged Caitano facilitated the preparation of prescriptions for Bade’s signature and gave the prescriptions to patients even though Bade had not seen the patient for medical treatment.
At the news conference, Price said, “Caitano would assist Dr. Bade in creating fraudulent medical records by administering fake urinalysis tests.”
Caitano and Sheena Strong, 32, an office assistant, were charged with a separate conspiracy to further distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.
Price said the indictment claimed both women received monthly prescriptions for high quantities of controlled substances from Bade, and they in turn distributed the controlled substances to other people for profit.
Caitano, Strong and two other office assistants, Marie Benevides, 80, and Theresa Saltus, 59, were charged with conspiring “to obtain controlled substances through misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.”
By January 2017, when several pharmacies in Hilo refused to fill certain prescriptions written by Bade because they were concerned that they were prescribed for unlawful purposes, Caitano, Strong, Benevides and Saltus allegedly agreed that one or more of them would fly to Maui once a month to fill and pick up numerous prescriptions signed by Bade and ordered in the names of multiple individuals.
Price said many of the prescriptions the women presented to pharmacies had fraudulent Maui addresses. When they picked up prescriptions for certain individuals, they falsely told pharmacy staff members that they were relatives of those individuals.
If convicted, Bade, Caitano and Strong each face up to 20 years in prison. Benevides and Saltus face up to four years in prison.
Price said, “Now it’s no secret that an opioid epidemic is sweeping through this country, leaving lost lives and shattered communities in its wake. The problem is multifaceted and requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. As federal officers charged with protecting and serving the people of Hawaii, we plan to do everything in our power to prevent the opioid epidemic from taking hold of the islands.”
