June 24, 2009

Attorney General Corbett announces arrest of Westmoreland County doctor and patient on prescription drug charges

Dr. Christian Vittone

Michael Miller

HARRISBURG - A Westmoreland County doctor and his patient, who allegedly conspired to obtain pills by writing and passing scripts in the name of the patient's family members, were arrested today by agents from the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Tom Corbett identified the defendants as Dr. Christian Vittone, 43, 316 Baywood Road, Box 490, Laughlintown and his long-time patient, Michael Miller, 49, 134 Maxwell Drive, Blairsville, Indiana County.

Corbett said that Dr. Vittone began prescribing Percocet, Valium and Ativan to Miller in 2006 for legitimate medical needs.

According to the criminal complaint, once the prescribed medications were no longer managing Miller's pain he requested stronger and additional quantities from Dr. Vittone.

The charges state that even though Dr. Vittone had prescribed the highest dosage and quantity possible, he told Miller that in order to get additional quantities of the drugs he needed the names of family members or individuals for whom he could write additional scripts.

Corbett said between 2006 and 2008, Dr. Vittone and Mr. Miller obtained thousands of pills in Miller's name and the names of Miller's wife and his mother, as well as two of Miller's employees. Dr. Vittone allegedly provided Miller with the false prescriptions and Miller or his employees passed them at various area pharmacies.

According to the criminal complaint, Miller kept many of the pills for his own personal use, but also returned a significant number of pills to Dr. Vittone.

"Prescription strength pain relievers are powerful and highly addictive substances," Corbett said.  "Just like illegal narcotics, these drugs can cause a normally responsible adult to do things seemingly out of character.  However, addiction does not excuse someone of his or her crimes.  And, in this case, we have a doctor who allegedly violated his medical oath to feed his and a friend's dependence."

Over the course of the investigation, agents obtained nearly 200 prescriptions from pharmacies in Westmoreland and Indiana counties, which Dr. Vittone allegedly prescribed.

Corbett said that in addition to writing these scripts, beginning in 2005, Dr. Vittone wrote and personally filled numerous scripts totaling over three thousand Oxycodone pills under the names of his girlfriend and ex-wife without their knowledge or consent. A number of these prescriptions were allegedly processed and paid for by their insurance companies.

Agents learned that Miller also used his mother's insurance to pay for the prescriptions that were passed under her name.

Dr. Vittone is charged with eight counts of practicing outside the scope of the patient relationship, three counts of acquisition of a controlled substance through misrepresentation, four counts of insurance fraud and one count of criminal conspiracy.

Miller is charged with four counts of acquisition of a controlled substance through misrepresentation, one count of insurance fraud and one count of criminal conspiracy.

The case will be prosecuted in Westmoreland County by Deputy Attorney General Tomm Mutschler of the Attorney General's Drug Strike Force and Senior Deputy Attorney General Dennis Kistler of the Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Section.

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(A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)