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Richard Johns To Change Plea in Pill Mill Case

1 min read

Richard Johns of Little Rock, no longer licensed to practice medicine, has been fighting charges of operating a “pill mill” of fraudulent painkiller prescriptions since May 2015.

He pleaded not guilty in Lonoke County Circuit Court and then in U.S. District Court in Little Rock when federal prosecutors took over the case four months later.

But he is now scheduled for a change of plea — presumably to guilty — on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Brian Miller.

Johns’ change of heart came the week after Miller declined (as Whispers reported two weeks ago) to dismiss the charges and ruled that evidence collected by Lonoke County investigators would be admissible at a trial scheduled for March 27.

A source close to the case told Whispers that the plea deal would likely result in a guideline federal prison sentence of eight to 12 years, but the details of the plea agreement between Johns and the U.S. Attorney’s Office had not been made public as of Thursday.

Originally charged in Lonoke County with 187 counts of what state law calls “fraudulent practices,” he is currently charged in federal court with one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute oxycodone and six counts of distributing oxycodone.”

Seventeen other defendants were also charged with the single count of conspiracy. Six have pleaded guilty and five more are scheduled for pleas on March 10.

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