Criminal Defense Lawyers

Alabama DEA Investigation Lawyer

Last Updated on: 14th December 2025, 10:54 pm

Dr. Shelinder Aggarwal was the nation’s highest Medicare prescriber of opioid painkillers. That’s not a regional distinction or a specialty ranking – he was number one in the entire country. In 2012, Alabama pharmacies filled 110,013 of his prescriptions for controlled substances. That equals 423 prescriptions per day if he worked five days a week. 12.3 million pills in a single year from a single physician. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Prosecutors said he “directly contributed to the opioid epidemic.”

Then President Biden granted him clemency.

The same physician whose prescribing volume made him the nation’s most prolific opioid prescriber – the doctor whose 12.3 million pills in one year seemed to define everything wrong with controlled substance dispensing – had his sentence commuted. Alabama produced both the most extreme example of high-volume prescribing prosecution and the most dramatic reversal through presidential intervention. If you’re practicing in Alabama and wondering what the enforcement landscape actually looks like, that paradox tells you more than any statistics could.

The Nation’s Highest Prescriber

Heres the math on what Aggarwal’s prescribing actually looked like. 110,013 controlled substance prescriptions filled by Alabama pharmacies in 2012. Assuming a five-day work week and no vacation, thats 423 prescriptions every single day. Even if each patient visit took only five minutes – no examination, no conversation, no documentation – that would require 35 hours of prescribing per day just to write the prescriptions.

The volume was physically impossible to accomplish with legitimate medical care. Thats not prosecutorial characterization. Thats arithmetic. No physician can meaningfully evaluate 423 patients per day. The prescribing numbers themselves became proof that something other then medicine was happening.

But heres were the Aggarwal case gets complicated. He surrendered his Alabama medical license voluntarily in 2013. He gave up his DEA certificate. He stopped prescribing. That voluntary surrender was supposed to end the scrutiny – he was out of the game. The federal prosecution came anyway, years later. The license surrender didnt protect him from criminal liability for prescribing that had already occured.

He was also charged with healthcare fraud involving $9.5 million in unneeded and unused urine tests. The prescribing wasnt the only issue – the testing fraud demonstrated a systematic scheme to extract money from the healthcare system. 15 years seemed to reflect both the prescribing volume and the fraud.

And then clemency. The Biden administration decided that 15 years was enough – or too much. The nation’s highest prescriber walks free earlier then his sentence required.

When Deleting Records Becomes Evidence

Dr. Rodney Morris of Madison County pleaded guilty to 64 counts of illegally distributing controlled substances. The evidence showed he prescribed opioid painkillers in exchange for sexual favors and monetary gain. According to the Alabama PDMP, Morris ranked 67 out of 13,118 medical doctors in Alabama for controlled substance prescriptions – seventh in Madison County alone.

Heres were Morris’s case becomes a warning about what happens after things go wrong. Between 2012 and 2017, he illegally prescribed one particular patient hydrocodone, alprazolam, oxycodone, and tramadol in exchange for sexual favors. This patient sold some of the drugs to supplement her income. After the patient died in May 2017, Morris attempted to delete her electronic medical records and erase evidence that she had been his patient.

The record deletion didnt work. Instead, it became additional evidence of consciousness of guilt. He knew the prescribing was problematic – thats why he tried to hide it. The deletion attempt proved awareness that would have been harder to establish otherwise.

Morris ranked 67th out of over 13,000 doctors statewide. He wasnt even close to the highest prescriber. The PDMP ranking that flagged him wasnt about volume – it was the combination of volume and pattern that attracted investigation. The sexual favors and the subsequent cover-up attempt turned a statistical outlier into a criminal prosecution.

The X-Ray Technician Seeing Patients

Dr. Paul Roberts of Fultondale faced a 135-count superseding indictment. The charges included participating in a healthcare fraud conspiracy that involved delegating responsibility for seeing patients with opioid addictions to staff – specifically his x-ray technician and office manager – but billing Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama as though he personally examined each patient.

Think about what that fraud reveals about how some practices actualy operated. The doctor bills for examinations. The x-ray technician actualy sees the patients. The prescriptions flow based on encounters that the prescribing physician never conducted. The documentation says one thing. The reality was completly different.

Roberts wasnt prosecuted just for prescribing. He was prosecuted for a systematic scheme to bill for services he didnt provide while distributing controlled substances based on evaluations he didnt perform. The fraud and the prescribing intertwined – each making the other worse from a prosecution standpoint.

The 135 counts in the superseding indictment came after an initial indictment. Prosecutors gathered more evidence. They added more charges. The investigation expanded as it progressed. By the time Roberts faced trial, the scope of charges had grown substantially from the original filing.

How Alabama PDMP Feeds Prosecution

Alabama’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program was created to detect diversion, abuse, and misuse of controlled substances. The official goal was protecting public health. The functional reality is that the database provides prosecutors with exactly the evidence they need to build cases against prescribers.

The Alabama PDMP contains five years plus the current year of prescription data. Every Schedule II through V controlled substance you prescribe sits in that database. Every patient. Every pharmacy. Every pill. Law enforcement can access this data when they have “active investigation and probable cause” – and a complaint or referral creates the active investigation.

Heres the hidden machinery most practitioners dont understand. Three specific types of PDMP reports are available to law enforcement. State, local, and federal authorities all have access. The data that was supposed to help you identify problematic patients is the same data that helps investigators identify problematic prescribers.

Dr. Morris ranked 67th out of 13,118 Alabama doctors. That ranking came from PDMP data. When investigators looked at his prescribing patterns, they didnt have to reconstruct anything – the database already contained the complete picture. The sexual favors and cover-up attempt provided motive and consciousness of guilt. The PDMP provided the statistical evidence of high-volume prescribing.

The Supreme Court Case From Mobile

Dr. Xiulu Ruan of Mobile was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for drug distribution and money laundering related to his pain clinic. Prosecutors said Ruan had deep ties to drug companies that created fentanyl medications. After his conviction, authorities seized exotic cars, residential and commercial property.

Ruan’s case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court on questions about the standard for proving criminal intent in physician prescribing cases. The Court’s decision addressed what prosecutors must prove to convict a doctor of unlawful distribution – specifically, wheather prosecutors must show the physician knew or intended to act outside legitimate medical practice.

The Supreme Court ruling provided some clarification favorable to defendants. But Ruan still served 21 years. Reaching the highest court in the country, winning on a question of legal standards, didnt undo the conviction or dramatically reduce the sentence. The case demonstrates both that legal arguments matter and that even favorable Supreme Court rulings dont necessarily translate to freedom.

The Ruan prosecution also highlighted the financial connections between prescribers and pharmaceutical companies. His “deep ties” to fentanyl manufacturers became part of the evidence against him. Financial relationships that might have seemed like normal industry engagement became evidence of improper motivation. The money laundering charges reflected assets that prosecutors argued came from criminal prescribing.

When Family Members Get Sentenced

Dr. Francene Gayle operated a multi-clinic practice in Huntsville, Athens, and Killen between 2014 and 2020. She was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for opioid prescribing charges, healthcare fraud, and wire fraud. Her wife, Schara Davis, owned the practice and served as business manager.

Davis got 42 months. She wasnt a prescriber. She didnt have a medical license. She managed the business side of a medical practice. And she went to federal prison for three and a half years.

Each defendant was ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution. The financial consequences extended far beyond prison time. The practice was destroyed. The licenses were gone. The restitution debt would follow them for decades.

Dr. Elizabeth Korcz and her husband Matthew received 52 and 30 months respectively. They operated Hoover Alt MD together. She prescribed. He helped run the operation. Both went to prison. The husband-wife structure that seemed to provide business stability instead created dual criminal liability.

If your running a practice with family involvement – a spouse handling billing, a relative managing operations – understand that federal prosecutors can charge everyone involved. The prescriber faces the most serious charges. But family members who participate in practice operations can face substantial prison time themselves.

What Happens When You Surrender Your License

Dr. Aggarwal surrendered his Alabama medical license voluntarily in 2013. He gave up his DEA certificate. He stopped prescribing controlled substances. The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners had initiated an investigation, and surrender seemed like the way to end things without a fight.

It didnt work that way. The federal prosecution came afterward. The prescribing that had already occured remained prosecutable. Voluntary license surrender ended his ability to prescribe going forward but didnt provide immunity for past conduct.

Heres what that means for practitioners considering surrender as a strategy. Your license to practice going forward is separate from criminal liability for past prescribing. Giving up your DEA registration doesnt make federal prosecution impossible. If investigators are already building a case, surrender might actually signal that you know there’s a problem – consciousness of guilt, the same thing that made Morris’s record deletion so damaging.

The path from investigation to prosecution doesnt require an active license. The PDMP data from your prescribing years remains accessible. The patient records remain available. The evidence exists independant of wheather you can currently prescribe.

What Actually Protects Alabama Practitioners

If your prescribing controlled substances in Alabama, your operating in a state that produced the nation’s highest Medicare opioid prescriber, a physician who prescribed for sexual favors and tried to delete records, a doctor whose case went to the Supreme Court, and multiple husband-wife teams who both went to prison. What actualy protects you?

First: Understanding that volume alone creates prosecution risk. 423 prescriptions per day is obviously impossible medicine. But the line between “high volume” and “impossible volume” isnt clearly defined. Statistical outlier status in the PDMP triggers investigation regardles of wheather you’ve crossed into obviously impossible territory.

Second: Documentation that demonstrates legitimate medical purpose. Not just diagnosis and drug. The clinical reasoning. The alternatives considered. The patient’s response to previous treatment. Documentation should be written as if prosecutors will read it – becuase in Alabama, with PDMP data feeding federal investigation, they probly will.

Third: Recognizing that surrender isnt protection. Aggarwal surrendered everything and still got prosecuted. The license surrender that ends your prescribing authority doesnt end your criminal liability for prescribing that already happened.

Fourth: Keeping family members out of practice operations – or understanding that there involvement creates there liability. When the practice gets investigated, everyone involved can be charged. Business managers, billing staff, family members who helped run things. 42 months for a wife who was business manager. 30 months for a husband who helped operate a clinic.

Fifth: Immediate counsel upon any investigation contact. Not after you’ve explained things. Not after you’ve surrendered your license hoping it makes the problem go away. Immediately. Aggarwal thought voluntary surrender would end things. It didnt. Morris thought deleting records would hide the evidence. It made things worse.

Thats the reality of prescribing controlled substances in Alabama in 2025. The nation’s highest prescriber got clemency – but he served years first. The PDMP contains five years of your prescribing history waiting to be analyzed. Family members go to prison alongside prescribers. And voluntary surrender doesnt provide the protection practitioners think it does. The only question is wheather you understand these realities before investigation begins, or after.