UES Doctor Prescribed Drugs That Led To Overdose Death, Feds Say

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side doctor already facing federal charges for illegally distributing drugs was hit with a second indictment accusing him of prescribing opiates that led to a man's overdose death, federal prosecutors announced.

Martin Tesher, a doctor who operated a family practice on East 68th Street near Madison Avenue, is accused of prescribing Nicholas Benedetto with oxycodone and fentanyl without legitimate medical purpose, the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced. Benedetto, of Staten Island, died of an overdose in 2015, federal prosecutors said.

"As alleged, instead of providing his opioid addicted patients with medically appropriate and lawful care, Dr. Tesher quite literally fed their addiction, and, in this case, his actions resulted in the death of a patient," Acting United States Bridget Attorney Rohde said in a statement.

Tesher was previously indicted in June for writing more than more than 14,000 prescriptions — totaling more than 2.2 million oxycodone pills — for illegitimate purposes between June 2012 and January 2017, according to a federal indictment.

In some cases Tesher continued to prescribe his patients oxycodone even though he knew they were addicted to the drug or using other hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine, prosecutors said.

On his practice website, Tesher describes himself as a "good old fashioned family doctor," with decades of medical experience.

"Although I am old fashioned in service, I deliver up to date modern medicine using state of the art technology when and where applicable. As a family physician, my interest is in caring for you and your family, and my goal is to keep you healthy and happy for a long time with good medical care, nutritional advice, and preventive medicine," Tesher says on his website.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images News/Getty Images