A Marietta doctor facing 42 years in prison on drug trafficking charges filed a lawsuit Wednesday against local and state law enforcement agents, alleging they improperly took his medical license.
The suit, filed by Dr. Pedrito Galupo, seeks more than $3.75 million in punitive and compensatory damages from Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks, the State Medical Board of Ohio, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy and several detectives who worked on the investigation into Galupo's practice.
Galupo, 73, of 501 Fifth St., was arrested July 8 at his office at 119 Maple St., where officers say he had been charging $50 a visit and prescribing painkillers without examining patients. Galupo is set to stand trial on the drug trafficking charges Dec. 15.
Galupo agreed to give up his medical license during the search of his medical office. His attorney, Rolf Baumgartel, said the request for the license was improper.
"It is our contention that they conspired against him to deprive him of his license without providing him the due process he should have been afforded," Baumgartel said.
The request for the license should have been made before the state medical board and not during an interrogation, Baumgartel said.
At first, Galupo declined to give up his license, Baumgartel said.
"When it became clear he was not going to surrender his license, the investigator said it would help his criminal case if he surrendered the license," Baumgartel said. "That is absolutely false. If anything, surrendering his license weakened his case. This license was surrendered under duress. This suit is seeking monetary damages. A medical license is worth a lot of money."
Mincks said he had not been served with a copy of the suit as of Wednesday afternoon.
"(Galupo) voluntarily surrendered that license, and our objective was to prosecute a criminal case," he said. "I'll look at the suit and give it to our county prosecutor to review."
Police said during a seven-week investigation, nearly 500 patients were observed visiting Galupo's office. Several undercover officers also scheduled appointments and said they were able to get prescriptions for numerous Schedule II narcotics - including Percocet, Xanax, Oxycontin, Adderall and Ritalin - without being examined.
Detectives working the case said they wanted to shut down the operation earlier, but they needed to build a strong case against the doctor.
"We could have shut him down, but he could have just moved to somewhere else. We wanted to get his medical license to prevent this from happening anywhere else," Chief Deputy Larry Stephens said at the time of the July search of Galupo's office.
Baumgartel said Galupo denies any wrongdoing in the criminal case. He said state medical board investigators, not police, should have been the ones to shut down the practice.
"Basically, you have sheriff's department detectives, who are doing the best they can, but they're the ones who are making the decision as to what is legitimate, malpractice or a crime," Baumgartel said. "The medical board is supposed to make those decisions."
