Rosalind Sugarmann, owner

Rosalind (Roz) Sugarmann, 63, former owner of Addiction Specialists Clinic in Uniontown, PA was forced to plead guilty in December, 2016 to health care fraud and the illegal distribution of Suboxone. In her forced testimony, Mrs. Sugarmann acknowledged aiding and abetting Dr. Dileo. She had originally been indicted on 237 counts of conspiring to operate as a “pill mill”—including 19 counts of unlawfully dispensing and distributing Suboxone, four counts of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute Xanax, and 93 counts of unlawfully dispensing and distributing a Schedule III controlled substance between January 2013 and July 2015, as well as a single count of criminal conspiracy.

 Mrs. Sugarmann had denied wrongdoing since the raid in October, 2015, as have two other people since added in a superseding indictment in April accused of assisting in the scheme in order to add pressure to the decision-making. But in July, 2016, the doctor at the clinic and a codefendant, Dominic DiLeo, MD, was forced to plead guilty as well, which basically put the writing on the wall.  At her plea hearing, her defense attorney as well as a courtroom full of supporters depicted her as a cross between a den mother and an angel of mercy to southwestern Pennsylvania’s growing population of opioid addicts. In July, 2017 she was sentenced to one year and a day in prison by U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer. That extra day allows her to benefit from release from prison for “good days”, so she will actually only have to spend 10.5 months inside. However, the purpose of attacking people like Ms. Sugarmann surfaced with the court ordering that she must also pay $400,000 in restitution. It’s all about the money.

Addiction Specialists Inc., was founded in 1999, with Rosalind as president and her husband, Sean Sugarmann as vice president-secretary. They were raided in October, 2015 by the FBI, DEA, DHHS, OIG, the state Attorney General’s Office and the Fayette County District Attorney’s Office. After the raid, the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs directed the clinic’s clients to seek treatment at other licensed facilities. The clinic was forced to stop its treatment with Suboxone and closed its in-patient rehabilitation facility, the Mary E. Steratore Addiction Treatment Center.

The superceding indictment in April, 2016, dragged in two additional employees–counselor Lou Polito, 60, for alleged illegal distribution of Suboxone, and clinical director Brandon Eicher, 40, for alleged healthcare fraud. The indictment said Value Behavioral Health (the state Medicaid insurance) was contracted with ASI to pay for group counseling for groups of 10 or fewer Suboxone patients. Sugarmann and Eicher allegedly directed counselors to see more than 10 patients in a group and file claims to VBH.

Unmentioned in any of the media reports is that Sean Sugarmann, Rosalind’s husband, was diagnosed with lung cancer. A “go-fund-me” was set up for his treatment. One-fourth of the necessary $12,000 was received in donations from 31 people. There is no report on how Mr. Sugarmann is doing now, with his wife incarcerated as a victim of government overreach into medicine and illegal use 

of the Controlled Substance Act.

Roz is at Alderson Federal Prison Camp. I was there my first year, so I know what she is experiencing. She is writing a commentary on her experience: https://aheroinestory.com/blog/.  I can attest that everything she says here about Alderson FPC is accurate. The place is hell on earth. If anyone close to her reads this, tell her to tell my former “counselor” Christopher Quesenberry (plus all the other ignorant bully guards and administrators there) to

KISS MY A___. 

Addendum

Roz was released from prison in July, 2018.  She has had a time getting her life back, but she stays positive in her thinking.   I am leaving my last paragraph above in the post because I would love for Mr. Quesenberry to get my message, even if it comes from someone else.

Addendum from the author:

I have failed in my mission to end these attacks on doctors and pain patients. Through John Bevere’s book The Bait of Satan, I have figured out why—my lack of forgiveness to those who attacked me. As in Mark 11: 24-26:

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

And when you do not do the will of the Father, you are estranged from him and he will ignore you.  So we all must forgive the agents who attacked us in order for things to be made right through any of our works.

Jesus said

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

But we cannot lay down our lives for God unless we know Him well enough to trust Him. We must have the assurance that He would never do anything to harm us. He always looks out for what He knows is in our best interest. As a nation, those of us suffering from these attacks must understand that we are serving as God’s messengers of love.  We must forgive those who persecute us and love them instead, following God’s will for us. Then and only then will we see fruits from our labor.

So I hope that everyone who has suffered from what happened to the doctor can trust the Lord, forgive those who have hurt you, and help bring this country back to the God-fearing country that our forefathers founded. Then, and only then, can you be a part of the effort to stop these attacks. I look forward to that day.