Ex-Doctor's Office Manager Pleads To Illegally Selling Oxy

GOSHEN, NY — A Goshen woman who worked as an office manager for a doctor pleaded guilty to trying to sell a massive amount of oxycodone pills. Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler said Tuesday that Jodee O'Dell, 38, of Goshen, admitted her guilt to the felony charge of attempted operating as a major trafficker.

Her plea involved a scheme to obtain oxycodone pills to sell by creating false prescriptions from the Goshen medical practice where she worked, authorities said.

Hoovler said O'Dell had accomplices, who were not patients of the practice, fill the prescriptions and give the majority of the pills to her and others.

The Orange County DA's office began an investigation after receiving a complaint from the medical practice that a group of people were suspected of being involved in a conspiracy to illegally obtain oxycodone by electronically issuing false prescriptions for the narcotic drug.

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As a result of the investigation, six people, including O'Dell, were charged with felony conspiracy charges, authorities said.

Complaints filed in the Village of Goshen Court said that the group caused 51,375 oxycodone pills, having a street value of more than $625,000 to be illegally dispensed between Jan. 6, 2015, and Aug. 27, authorities said.

At the time of O'Dell's plea, she admitted that during the six-month period between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 28, 2018, the group caused 11,803 pills containing oxycodone, have a street value of more than $182,000 to be illegally dispensed through false prescriptions.

O'Dell is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29.

Hoovler said the large number of pills that illegally came from the medical practice shows how the opioid epidemic affects every community in the state without regard to socio-economic status.

"The abuse of oxycodone has helped fuel the opioid epidemic," he said. "Those who believe that it is safe to take oxycodone pills without a doctor's order, because the pills are created by a pharmaceutical company, rather than being 'street drugs,' are tragically mistaken.

"There is a direct connection between the abuse of opioid pills and the abuse of heroin and the frequently lethal fentanyl that is often sold with it," Hoovler said.

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