Judge Reduces Former Physician Charges From Murder To Manslaughter

MINEOLA, NY — A judge has reduced five counts of murder to manslaughter for a former Rockville Centre physician, Newsday reported.

Prosecutors had referred to George Blatti as a "serial killer" for the deaths of five drug-addicted patients by prescribing large amounts of opioids and other medications, Newsday said.

"Reckless homicide cannot be elevated into depraved indifference murder merely because the actions of the defendant created a risk of death, however grave or substantial that risk may have been," Acting State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano in the ruling on Thursday, according to Newsday.

Blatti was indicted in 2021.

Read the full Newsday article here.