The federal drug crimes trial of Dr. Martin Escobar of Boardman has now been moved to Feb. 1, 2021, as the government provides Escobar with expert witnesses to help him prepare his defense.

Escobar, 57, of Heatherwood Creek Run, is charged with 145 offenses, including unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances that caused the deaths of two patients. He operated Lake Shore Medical Center on Mahoning Avenue in Lake Milton.

His indictment alleges Escobar was prescribing oxycodone to two patients who died in 2015 and 2016 and accuses him of prescribing medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, lorazepam and alprazolam “outside the usual course of professional practice.”

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Nugent in Cleveland declared the case “complex” in April appointed attorney J. Gerald Ingram and Ryan Ingram, to represent Escobar at government expense in June. On July 22, the judge set the trial date for Feb. 1, 2020.

After a Thursday telephone pretrial conference, the judge stated that Escobar is hiring “a couple of experts,” and substantial work needs to be done by Escobar’s lawyers to prepare for trial.

The judge set the next pretrial hearing for 9 a.m. Dec. 8. Also Thursday, the judge sealed and approved a motion Escobar’s attorneys filed that gave information about the expert witnesses Escobar wants to hire at government expense.

The motion “contains confidential, sensitive information which at this juncture should not be public record,” Atty. J. Gerald Ingram stated in a filing.

On Aug. 20, the judge refused an Escobar request that he be allowed to travel to Beckley, W.Va., later that month to interview for a job as primary care physician in Beckley.

U.S. attorneys at the time asked the judge to deny the request, saying that the terms under which Escobar was allowed to remain free on bond were that he not leave the northern district of Ohio and actively be monitored on a GPS tracking bracelet.

Furthermore, the court’s pretrial services department indicated that Escobar could no longer be monitored if he left Ohio.

Beckley is about 300 miles from his home in the Youngstown area, and the government opposed the travel because Escobar “could pose a flight risk given the offenses he is charged with, and his ties to, and past travel outside of the United States.”

His indictments include charges that call for a “mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison,” the government stated.