Prosecutors & defense attorneys are asking the judge for no prison time.
BALTIMORE (AP) – A Frederick physician who fled to Panama amid allegations he overprescribed addictive painkillers won’t serve prison time for his federal fraud conviction.
In a document filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, his lawyer says 81-year-old Nicola Tauraso is receiving hospice care and is medically incompetent to make decisions.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Oyer says she and prosecutors have agreed to jointly recommend no prison time. The court has ordered a status report in late September.
Tauraso pleaded guilty in June to one count of health-care fraud for billing Medicare and Medicaid $350,000 for controlled substances, mostly oxycodone, dispensed through fraudulent prescriptions.
He was indicted in 2014 and arrested last year at Dulles International Airport as he was returning from Panama.
His sentencing had been set for Aug. 19.