Husband And Wife Sentenced In St. Clair County Pill Mill Scheme

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A federal judge Monday sentenced a husband and wife from Springville for their role in a pill mill scheme.

United States District Judge R. David Proctor sentenced Cindy Louise Hyche Dunn, 54, to 10 years in prison on one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance outside the usual course of professional practice and not for legitimate medical purpose and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for purposes of promoting the pill conspiracy. Her husband, Thomas Mason Dunn, 57, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the same money laundering conspiracy. The couple pleaded guilty in March.

U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town said from January 2012 through December 2015, Cindy Dunn ran a pain management clinic in Moody, operating under the name Cindy Dunn & Dr. Buckingham, M.D., Weight Loss Clinic and Pain Management. Town said CDPM was not a legitimate pain clinic, but rather a pill mill churning out thousands of prescriptions for opioid painkillers.

Thomas Dunn reportedly performed financial transactions on behalf of CDPM to further the pill mill scheme. He also received prescriptions for opioid painkillers from CDPM.

"The opioid crisis remains a significant problem in the country and in the Northern District of Alabama," Town said. "The Department of Justice is determined to stamp out the operation of illegal pain clinics by all means as a part of the fight against opioid abuse, and the Northern District of Alabama is fully committed to the fight. The defendants will now serve time in a federal prison for their crime, and they will be joined shortly by those like them."