A Jonesboro psychiatrist accused of illegally prescribing excessive amounts of prescription medication that authorities say led to the deaths of dozens of patients gained access to his recently-seized medical records in a deal hammered out in court Tuesday.
Dr. Narendra Nagareddy is facing a felony charge of illegally distributing or dispensing a controlled substance. He was arrested Jan. 14 and released a day later on $100,000 bond on the condition he does not practice medicine. Authorities say more charges are likely when he's indicted. Authorities believe he is responsible for the deaths of about three dozen of his patients.
On Tuesday, Nagareddy went before Superior Court Judge Geronda Carter for a civil forfeiture hearing. During the Jan. 14 raid, authorities closed Nagareddy’s office, seized his medical files as well as his home and car and other assets.
Under Tuesday’s deal, Nagareddy gets supervised access to his medical files and gets to remain in his McDonough home.
An Atlanta Journal Constitution investigation found that authorities missed years of warnings about Nagareddy and that safeguards designed to protect the public didn't stop the psychiatrist from writing excessive amounts of prescriptions.
By the time a Drug Enforcement Administration task force arrested Nagareddy, three dozen of his patients had died while he was prescribing them controlled substances, investigators allege. If those deaths prove to be overdoses from prescriptions he wrote, this could be the deadliest case of over-prescriptions to be prosecuted in the U.S.
More information is available here.
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