gavel.JPG

An Akron doctor is charged with illegally doling out prescription painkillers.

(File photo)

AKRON, Ohio -- An Akron-area doctor accused of writing powerful painkiller prescriptions in exchange for money and sexual favors faces four dozen federal charges, according to a grand jury indictment handed up Thursday.

The charges against Dr. Gregory Ingram, 29, involve incidents from November 2012 to October 2014, while he worked as an emergency room doctor at several locations for Akron General Medical Center's emergency department, the indictment says.

The indictment states that Ingram, a Ravenna resident, wrote prescriptions for 1,759 tablets of oxycodone and morphine tablets for 12 people in that time period. It also says he frequented strip clubs in the Akron area and gave the pills to those he met at dance clubs and their friends.

He is charged with 48 counts of illegal dispensing of a controlled substance.

Ingram's medical license is active in the state of Ohio, records show. However, the hospital removed Ingram from practicing in the emergency department and notified law enforcement once the inconsistencies came to light, a spokesman said in a statement.

David Doughten, Ingram's attorney, said his client has stopped practicing medicine pending the outcome of this case.

The indictment says Ingram's "patients" did not visit him at a medical facility and that he gave them "little if any examination" before writing the prescriptions. He also "often deliberately ignored common and obvious indicators ... of addiction or dependency and often deliberately avoided learning whether his 'patients' were drug-dependent or addicted" to the painkillers he doled out, the indictment reads.

Ingram graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University in 2010.

Reached Thursday, he declined comment and referred a reporter to his attorney. Doughten said he did not know enough about the case to comment.