YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Martin Escobar, 57, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on 145 charges, including unlawful distribution and dispensation of controlled substances that caused the deaths of two patients.

The indictment alleges that between March 2015 and May 2019, Escobar prescribed opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, often in combination with benzodiazepines and stimulants and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

At a hearing in November, Magistrate Judge George Limbert allowed Escobar, of Heatherwood Creek Run, to be released from federal custody after posting $20,000 bond, but Escobar had to give up the federal registration that allowed him to prescribe controlled substances, give up his passport and be on house arrest.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Ohio said Escobar used false diagnoses, falsified patient pain levels in medical charts, increased drug dosages and prescribed them for prolonged periods of time, failed to adequately investigate patients’ pain complaints, failed to consider treatment options that did not include controlled substances, and ignored the results of patient urine screens.

The indictment states Escobar also commited healthcare fraud by billing and causing the government to be billed for medically unnecessary controlled substances and urine-drug screens.

The charges state Escobar caused the death of a patient in 2015 and one in 2016 by unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances to them.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern

District of Ohio Justin Herdman said in a news release that the “vast majority of doctors take their oath to do no harm seriously,” but when doctors do not take that oath seriously, “as alleged with respect to this defendant, we stand ready to use every law enforcement tool, including criminal charges, to address that harm.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said, “Every time a pill mill grinds to a halt, Ohio moves closer to ending this crisis.”

The case was investigated by a number of agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, and the Ohio Board of Pharmacy.

No arraignment hearing was listed for Escobar in his online court records.

erunyan@tribtoday.com