A Lincoln County Superior Court jury Wednesday convicted Richard “Dik” Brackett, 66, of seven charges stemming from an investigation into allegations he was selling and trading high-powered painkillers for sex.
The jury of eight men and four women was unable to reach a verdict on two counts of trafficking in controlled prescription drugs.
Justice Andrew M. Horton said sentencing will be scheduled in late July or early August.
Brackett, who denied the charges, was permitted to remain free on $3000 bond. He declined to comment after the verdict.
The former Boothbay Harbor physician’s assistant faces a maximum sentence of 15 years, although Deputy Attorney General Lisa Bogue said it was unlikely he would be sentenced to the maximum.
Bogue said she was pleased at the jury verdict. “They took a long time to look at all the counts,” she said.
She said the verdict was a lesson for the state’s medical community.
“Those people (who hold medical licenses) are in a position of trust and I hope these people realize you can’t hide behind a license to sell drugs,” she said following the verdict.
Defense lawyer David J. Van Dyke of Lewiston, said the verdict may well be appealed. “The jury weighed all the evidence carefully but I am still not convinced that anything criminal happened at (Brackett’s) Urgent Care Clinic in Boothbay.”
After 15 hours of deliberation over three days, the jury convicted Brackett of trafficking in controlled prescription drugs, a Class B felony, by selling vicodin to a patient, Lea Selleck. He was also convicted of engaging a prostitute by trading sex for pills and theft by deception. Some of the transactions were secretly recorded by law enforcement officers.
In addition, Brackett was convicted of four counts of violating the privacy of his tenants by secreting video cameras inside clock radios placed in his bedrooms and a bathroom. He told jurors during seven and a half hours on the witness stand that the cameras were installed to catch thieves.
Brackett, a retired Army medic, who wore a pin during the trial indicating he had been awarded the Silver Star, operated a walk-in health clinic in Boothbay Harbor.
He was arrested in July 2006, the day after a search warrant was served on his home, his office and his car, by agents from the Maine Attorney General’s health care crimes unit.
The agents acted on information alleging Brackett was selling narcotics/narcotic prescriptions for sex.
During the search of his office, agents discovered video cameras secreted inside clock radios located in rooms of his tenants and in a bathroom. This led to the violation of privacy charges.
Theft by Deception, a Class C felony, alleges that from July 2, 2005 till June 6, 2006, Brackett obtained more than $1000 from the MaineCare Program by submitting false claims when he did not provide service claimed or that he was not entitled to be reimbursed.
On Sept. 12, 2006, Brackett voluntarily agreed to immediate and permanent revocation of his medical license and agreed he shall never again apply for a physician’s assistant’s license. That information was forwarded to all state medical licensing boards.
