A former Boothbay Harbor physician’s assistant was ordered to serve 21 months in prison Wednesday, with the rest of the five-year sentence to be on probation.
He was also ordered to pay $2200 in restitution to the MaineCare program for submitting inflated medical bills to the state.
At Richard “Dik” Brackett’s sentencing Wednesday morning in Lincoln County Superior Court, Judge Andrew Horton called the case “tragic and difficult,” and ordered Brackett to report to prison on Jan. 15.
The judge did however give Brackett permission to visit his daughter in Massachusetts for Christmas.
In her presentation to the court, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Bogue said, “he convicted himself,” referring to tape-recorded conversations with a woman in which Brackett bartered high powered painkillers for sex and installed video cameras in his tenants’ apartments.
Attorney for the defense, David J. Van Dyke blamed the victim, saying she was a drug addict.
“This is a case of just two pills,” he said.
In a statement to the court, Brackett said if anything he had done caused harm, or discredited his profession, “then I profoundly apologize and readily accept responsibility. I have never intentionally harmed even one of my patients,” he said.
Horton, who noted Brackett was a licensed medical provider, imposed the sentence more than three and a half years after Brackett, 66, a former Army medic, was arrested.
In his sentencing, Horton gave the defendant credit for his military service and 60 plus years without being arrested for any offenses and for his service to his community.
In June, Brackett was convicted of trafficking in controlled prescription drugs, a Class B felony, engaging a prostitute, by trading sex for pills, theft by deception, and four counts of violating the privacy of his tenants by secreting video cameras inside clock radios placed in their bedrooms and a bathroom.
Brackett collapsed during a sentencing hearing in November, as attorney Dyke, urged the judge not to send him to jail.
After collapsing in court, Brackett was hospitalized overnight. He said before the hearing that he was okay.”
At the earlier sentencing hearing, Bogue had urged that Brackett, be jailed for three years, in addition to probation and a $2200 restitution payment to the MaineCare Program. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.
She had described Brackett as “gate keeper,” a healthcare professional who took advantage of a most vulnerable person, a drug addict.
Although Brackett testified he had not committed a crime, Bogue argued, “clearly, the jury did not accept his story.”
She said his story that he put videotape cameras in the rooms he rented to tenants’ “most private areas” showed he thought he was above the law and [standards of] common decency.”
Brackett was supported by a number of community members who praised his willingness to help his patients.
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.