Criminal Defense Lawyers

Wisconsin DEA Investigation Lawyer

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

Lisa Hofschulz operated Clinical Pain Consultants in Wauwatosa. For the first year, the entire operation ran from a single 8×8 foot room adjacent to a chiropractic office. Eight feet by eight feet. Sixty-four square feet. No exam table. No medical equipment. She didn’t take patients’ vital signs. She didn’t perform physical examinations. She didn’t review medical records. She didn’t order imaging or tests to diagnose illness or injury.

She prescribed opioids to 99% of patients. Each patient paid $200 cash per month. In 2015 and 2016, she wrote prescriptions for more than 2 million opioid pills. She collected over $2 million in cash. During that period, Lisa Hofschulz was the leading prescriber of oxycodone and methadone among all Medicaid prescribers in Wisconsin. The number one prescriber in the state – operating from a room smaller than most prison cells.

Sometimes she paid her landlords with opioid prescriptions instead of rent. The couple who leased her the space adjacent to their chiropractic office received large-quantity prescriptions in lieu of payment. Rent money or opioid prescriptions – functionally equivalent in this arrangement. A federal jury found that her prescribing resulted in at least one patient death. The sentence: 20 years in federal prison.

The 8×8 Foot Pill Mill

Heres what Clinical Pain Consultants looked like for its first year of operation. A single room. Eight feet by eight feet. Leased from another couple who ran a chiropractic practice. The Hofschulzes didnt have there own exam room. They had a closet-sized space attached to someone elses practice.

No exam table existed in that room. No medical equipment. The things you would expect to see in a medical practice – stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, examination table – werent there. The things you would expect a medical provider to do – take vital signs, perform physical examination, review medical records, order diagnostic tests – didnt happen.

What happened instead: patients came in, paid $200 cash, and left with opioid prescriptions. 99% of patients recieved controlled substance prescriptions. Not some patients. Not most patients. Ninety-nine percent. The operation wasnt pain management. It was prescription distribution using the paperwork of medical practice.

The 8×8 foot room matters becuase it proves no legitimate medical practice was occurring. You cant conduct proper medical examinations in an 8×8 space with no equipment. The physical constraints of the space made real medicine impossible. What the space was designed for – and what it accomplished – was processing cash payments and issuing prescriptions. The architecture told the truth about the operation.

Lisa Hofschulz was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Robert Hofschulz, her husband and business partner, was sentenced to three years. The nine-day trial established that they distributed controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

99% of Patients Prescribed Opioids

Think about what a 99% prescription rate means. If you walked into Clinical Pain Consultants with cash, you walked out with opioids. Not “if your condition justified it.” Not “after careful evaluation.” You walked in with money and walked out with controlled substances.

The $200 monthly payment was the qualification. Patients who paid got prescriptions. Patients who kept paying kept getting prescriptions. Many of the patients were repeat customers who were obviously addicted. The addiction was visible. The prescriptions continued.

The evidence at trial showed something else about the prescribing patterns. Lisa Hofschulz mailed prescriptions to “favored patients.” Some customers didnt even have to show up. They recieved controlled substance prescriptions through the mail. And some prescriptions went to customers who were never seen by a medical provider at all. Prescriptions without patients. Controlled substances without clinical encounters.

Heres the number that puts the 99% in context. During 2015-2016, Lisa Hofschulz prescribed more then 2 million opioid pills. Two million pills in two years. A million pills per year. Over 80,000 pills per month. From a practice that operated from an 8×8 foot room with no exam table.

#1 Prescriber in Wisconsin

Lisa Hofschulz was the leading prescriber of oxycodone among all Medicaid prescribers in Wisconsin. Not in Wauwatosa. Not in Milwaukee County. In the entire state of Wisconsin. She also held the top position for methadone prescriptions among Medicaid prescribers.

Number one in oxycodone. Number one in methadone. Both records. From a practice that started in a 64-square-foot space leased from a chiropractor.

Think about what that ranking means. Wisconsin has major health systems – Froedtert, Aurora, Marshfield Clinic, Gundersen. Pain management practices affiliated with hospitals. University-connected programs. Hundreds of physicians across the state prescribing controlled substances through legitimate medical practices with full equipment, trained staff, proper documentation.

And Lisa Hofschulz, operating from what started as an 8×8 room, prescribed more oxycodone and methadone then all of them. The #1 ranking wasnt an achievement. It was evidence. No legitimate pain management practice could reach those volumes through appropriate prescribing. The numbers themselves proved the operation wasnt medicine.

The #1 prescriber designation appears in the federal sentencing documents. Prosecutors used that ranking to demonstrate the scale of the operation. When your prescribing volume exceeds every other provider in the state – including major health systems – the volume itself becomes prosecution evidence. You cant prescribe more opioids then entire hospital systems and claim your practicing standard medicine.

Prescriptions as Rent

The couple who leased space to the Hofschulzes didnt always recieve rent checks. Sometimes they recieved opioid prescriptions instead. Large-quantity prescriptions for controlled substances in lieu of cash payment for the lease.

Read that sentence again. Prescriptions for rent. Controlled substances as a medium of exchange. The landlords accepted opioids instead of money becuase the opioids had street value that exceeded the rent amount. The prescriptions werent medical treatment for the landlords – they were currency.

This arrangement made the landlords co-conspirators. They werent just renting space to a medical practice. They were participating in a distribution scheme that used there premises. The prescriptions-for-rent arrangement demonstrated that everyone involved understood these prescriptions had value beyond medical treatment.

The Hofschulzes operated this way throughout the relationship with there initial landlords. The prescriptions flowed to maintain the business arrangement. The landlords recieved controlled substances. The Hofschulzes recieved continued access to the space. The transaction looked nothing like medical care becuase it wasnt medical care.

The Pediatrician and the Opioids

Dr. Manuel Thomas was a pediatrician. Pediatrics is the medical specialty focused on the health of infants, children, and adolescents. The specialty has nothing to do with chronic pain management. Nothing to do with the conditions that typically justify ongoing opioid prescriptions to adults.

Thomas was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and maintaining a premises for the purpose of unlawfully distributing controlled substances. He pleaded guilty to both counts, acknowledging that he had distributed controlled substances, including powerful opiates, for years.

Heres the key phrase from the court records: “in a manner outside of a professional medical practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.” The prescribing wasnt pediatric care. The prescribing wasnt any recognizable form of legitimate medicine. A pediatrician distributing powerful opiates to patients who werent children with pediatric conditions.

The specialty-drug mismatch creates automatic prosecution evidence. What pediatric conditions require ongoing adult opioid prescriptions? None. When a pediatrician prescribes controlled substances outside there specialty, the mismatch itself demonstrates the prescribing wasnt for legitimate medical purposes.

The Lifetime Ban and the $175,000

Dr. Mehran Heydarpour of Brookfield agreed to pay $175,000 to resolve allegations. He had prescribed opioid pain medications in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and billed Medicare for patient visits that didnt occur in violation of the False Claims Act.

But the financial penalty wasnt the most significant consequence. As part of the settlement, Dr. Heydarpour agreed that he would never again seek to register with the DEA for authorization to prescribe controlled substances.

Never again. Not “for five years.” Not “until completing additional training.” Never. A lifetime prohibition on controlled substance prescribing. He provided pain management services at his Brookfield clinic until 2016. After 2016, he could never prescribe controlled substances again.

The lifetime ban demonstrates something about civil settlements that practitioners need to understand. You can resolve allegations without criminal conviction. You can avoid prison. You can pay a financial penalty and continue practicing. But the DEA registration prohibition can be permanent. The civil resolution that avoids criminal consequences can still end your ability to prescribe controlled substances forever.

The ePDMP That Law Enforcement Reports TO

Wisconsins prescription drug monitoring program has an unusual feature. Law enforcement agencies dont just request data from the ePDMP. They submit data to it.

Wisconsin Statute 961.37, effective March 2016, created a duty for law enforcement agencies to submit information to the Wisconsin ePDMP in four specific situations. The ePDMP then disseminates that information to relevant healthcare users of the system.

Think about what this means. When law enforcement encounters certain situations involving controlled substances, they report that information to the prescription monitoring program. Healthcare providers who use the ePDMP to check patient histories may see law enforcement reports alongside prescription data.

The flow goes both directions:

• Prescribers query the ePDMP to see patient prescription histories
• Law enforcement can access data about prescribing patterns
• Law enforcement submits reports that become visible to healthcare providers

The information sharing creates a network were prescription data, law enforcement information, and healthcare decisions all intersect.

The bidirectional reporting means your prescribing patterns exist in a system that law enforcement both feeds and draws from. The ePDMP isnt just a passive database that collects dispensing data. Its an active system that incorporates law enforcement observations and makes them available to healthcare providers checking patient backgrounds.

926 Deaths and the $9.8 Billion Cost

In 2017, there were 926 opioid overdose deaths in Wisconsin. The rate – 16.9 deaths per 100,000 persons – was higher then the national rate of 14.6. Wisconsin wasnt just experiencing the opioid crisis. Wisconsin was experiencing it at elevated levels compared to the country as a whole.

The trend line is worse then the raw numbers suggest:

• Opioid use disorder more then tripled in Wisconsin during 2005 to 2016
• Deaths increased from 414 in 2008 to 916 in 2017
• The crisis accelerated over time, with each year bringing more overdoses, more deaths, more evidence that the prescription opioid problem had evolved into a heroin and fentanyl catastrophe

Heres the connection between prescription opioids and illicit drug use. A 2013-2015 survey of heroin overdose patients in Wisconsin found that nearly 92% had previously been prescribed opioids. Ninety-two percent. The pathway from prescription to heroin to overdose ran through medical prescribing. The patients who overdosed on heroin had histories that included legitimate prescriptions.

Researchers estimated the 2015 cost of Wisconsins opioid crisis at approximately $9.8 billion – or $1,700 per capita. Thats healthcare costs, lost productivity, criminal justice expenses, and the economic impact of lives cut short. The enforcement environment that prosecuted the Hofschulzes and Dr. Thomas exists in a state thats lost billions to the crisis those prosecutions address.

What Actually Protects Wisconsin Practitioners

If your prescribing controlled substances in Wisconsin, your operating in a state were an 8×8 foot room produced the #1 oxycodone prescriber, prescriptions served as rent payment, and a pediatrician prescribed opiates for years. What actualy protects you?

First: Physical premises that support legitimate medical practice. The Hofschulz operation started in 64 square feet with no exam table. The space itself proved no real medicine was happening. Your practice environment should demonstrate the capacity for proper examination, documentation, and clinical decision-making.

Second: Prescription rates that reflect medical judgment, not payment receipt. 99% of patients recieving opioids means the cash payment determined prescribing, not clinical evaluation. If your prescription rates approach totality, the pattern itself becomes evidence that something other then medicine is driving decisions.

Third: Specialty alignment with prescribing patterns. Thomas was a pediatrician prescribing adult opioids. The mismatch was obvious. If your prescribing controlled substances outside your specialty, the gap between what your trained for and what your prescribing creates automatic questions.

Fourth: Understanding that civil settlement can include permanent consequences. Heydarpour’s $175,000 settlement included a lifetime ban on DEA registration. Civil resolution avoided criminal prosecution but ended controlled substance prescribing forever. The financial penalty wasnt the permanent consequence. The registration prohibition was.

Fifth: Awareness that the ePDMP incorporates law enforcement reports. The system isnt one-directional. Law enforcement submits information that healthcare providers can see. The prescription monitoring program functions as an information-sharing network, not just a prescribing database.

Sixth: Immediate counsel upon any federal contact. Lisa Hofschulz got 20 years. Dr. Thomas got 18 months. Dr. Heydarpour got civil settlement with a lifetime ban. The range of outcomes is enormous. Legal strategy from the beginning shapes wheather you face the Hofschulz outcome or the Heydarpour outcome – prison versus settlement, decades versus financial penalty.

Thats the reality of prescribing controlled substances in Wisconsin in 2025. An 8×8 foot pill mill that became the #1 prescriber in the state. Prescriptions as rent. A pediatrician distributing opiates. 926 deaths in a single year. And a prescription monitoring system that law enforcement both accesses and feeds. The enforcement infrastructure exists in a state thats lost nearly $10 billion to the opioid crisis. The prosecutions reflect that cost.