Crime & Safety

85-Year-Old Doc Pleads Guilty to Drug Distribution

Psychiatrist Priscilla Ilem faces possible 20-year sentence and $1 million fine for selling hundreds of Oxycodone prescriptions.

A psychiatrist pleaded guilty to illegally selling hundreds of Oxycodone prescriptions from her Wayne office in 2011, the U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced on Friday.

Priscilla Ilem, 85, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph Irenas in Camden federal court Friday on a charge of distributing Oxycodone without a legitimate medial purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice. She in August of 2011.

Ilem admitted that she prescribed Oxycodone at intervals inconsistent with legitimate medical treatment, the attorney’s office said in a statement. She affirmed that, in her medical opinion, there was an absence of a logical relationship between the Oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, she prescribed and her patients’ alleged conditions.

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Wayne Police and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) discovered nearly 300 prescriptions for 238 patients Ilem wrote were filled at a local Walgreens in June and July of 2011.

The criminal complaint against Ilem states she unlawfully prescribed Oxycodone to confidential sources working with the DEA. After office visits that lasted an average of just 10 minutes, and which involved no physical examination or testing, Ilem charged patients a cash fee of $200 and provided a prescription slip for drugs, the complaint states.

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Authorities said last August that Ilem was aware she was under investigation. She told police she was concerned that someone was using her name to write prescriptions. DEA special agent Douglas Collier said last August.

Collier said Ilem made the call in an attempt to cover her tracks.

Distribution of such a Schedule II substance carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

As part of her guilty plea, Ilem agreed to forfeit $500,000 in illegal proceeds she received to the federal government.

Ilem taught at West Point Military Academy for several years and served in the U.S. Army Reserves for 17 years.

Ilem is scheduled to be sentenced later this year.

— Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Daniel Hubbard at Daniel.Hubbard@patch.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.


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