[ad_1]
NEW YORK — A health care provider and his spouse who appeared on the Bravo actuality collection “Under Deck” had been arraigned in New York on Thursday on fees that they stuffed out bogus opioid prescriptions utilizing the names of solid members from the present.
Urologist Francis Martinis and his spouse, Jessica Martinis, of Fort Salonga, New York, had been every charged with prison sale of a prescription for a managed substance by a practitioner and falsifying enterprise information.
They appeared in state courtroom in Riverhead on Lengthy Island after first being arrested in Could. Each pleaded not responsible, in response to their legal professional. The couple had been launched with out bail and are due again in courtroom Jan. 25.
“Under Deck,” which premiered on Bravo in 2013, follows crew members and the passengers they cater to aboard a luxurious yacht.
The Martinises appeared on the spinoff “Under Deck Mediterranean” in 2019. Francis Martinis additionally appeared on “Under Deck Crusing Yacht” the next yr.
The couple’s legal professional, Peter Crusco, known as the fees bogus.
“My purchasers have pled not responsible and are presumed harmless, and stay up for their day in courtroom to clear their names,” Crusco mentioned in a textual content message.
Prosecutors mentioned Francis Martinis, 55, transmitted prescriptions for oxycodone to Lengthy Island pharmacies with the names of “Under Deck” solid members listed because the purported sufferers. Jessica Martinis, 38, then picked up the medicine and paid in money, prosecutors mentioned.
Jessica Martinis first raised crimson flags in January 2023 when she tried to fill a handwritten prescription for oxycodone in another person’s identify, prosecutors mentioned.
An investigation turned up proof of quite a few faux oxycodone prescriptions that Francis Martinis had written with the names of solid members from the fact present, authorities mentioned.
Not one of the oxycodone was truly supposed for the folks named within the prescriptions, prosecutors mentioned.
“Physicians are held to a excessive commonplace, as they take an oath to uphold numerous skilled moral requirements after they start their careers,” Suffolk County District Lawyer Raymond Tierney mentioned in a press release. “The conduct Dr. Martinis allegedly engaged in together with his spouse not solely violated this oath, however it additionally violated the legislation.”
Frank Tarentino, the federal Drug Enforcement Company’s particular agent in cost for New York, mentioned, “These arrests are a reminder that a physician’s illicit drug diversion can result in irreparable hurt just like the drug overdoses and poisonings presently plaguing our nation.”
A consultant for NBCUniversal, Bravo’s father or mother firm, declined to remark.
Extra from CBS Information
[ad_2]
Source link
