Baton Rouge chiropractor caught with nearly 30 lbs of prescription drugs, arrested a year later

BATON ROUGE - A local medical professional was booked into jail Monday, a little more than a year after he was found asleep behind the wheel of his Mercedes with a bag of prescription drugs and two firearms inside.

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According to a report dated July 9, 2018, deputies found 62-year-old Michael Goff asleep in his car in a Walgreens parking lot on Perkins Road. Goff refused medical care from EMS at the time and said he was just "taking a nap."

When deputies went to question Goff, they noticed prescription pill bottles on his floorboard. As one of the deputies walked to the other side of the vehicle, Goff allegedly tried to hide the pill bottles beneath the driver's seat.

When deputies retrieved the bottles that had been sitting in plain sight, they noticed the labels on all three were destroyed. Goff said the bottles contained Hydrocodone and Vyvanse and assured the deputies he had prescriptions for the medication at his home. Deputies also found Adderal capsules in Goff's pockets during a pat-down search.

Goff claimed he had fallen asleep in his car because he works long hours as a chiropractor, and the pills help with his back pain and busy schedule. A search warrant was obtained after Goff refused to give deputies permission to search the rest of his vehicle.

Inside his car, deputies found more than $8,800 cash on his floorboards and inside a backpack, with some of the bills stored in bank envelopes. They also found two handguns with spare magazines, about 87 prescription pill bottles and 22 plastic bags with assorted pills and capsules inside.

Goff told deputies he had prescriptions for the medication and said he tore the labels off many of the bottles because he didn't like his personal information being visible. He also explained he kept cash on him at all times and carried the guns for protection since he worked late hours.

Deputies questioned Goff again about the number of pills, and he said most of them were several years old and "probably were not even any good." He also admitted to buying some of the pills "off the street," saying he would sometimes meet the dealers outside his gym on Siegen Lane.

After he admitted to having more "old" medication at his house, he agreed to the deputies' request to search it. Inside Goff's home, deputies found two backpacks and a messenger bag filled with numerous bottles and plastic bags containing even more pills. Another bag loaded with pills was found in the passenger's seat of a Ford F-150 parked in his driveway.

The sheriff's office says the DEA was contacted to help deputies go through the "enormous" amount of prescription drugs. Once all the drugs were weighed, arrest records say the pills found in Goff's car weighed 7.6 pounds, with the pills found at his home weighing 21.2 pounds. The total number of pills seized from Goff came out to 594 units.

Tests of the drugs found at both locations were positive for controlled substances, including Oxycodone.

Goff was booked Monday, more than a year after his initial run-in with law enforcement, and booked on charges of intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances and possession of a firearm with controlled dangerous substances.

The website for Louisiana Health & Injuries Center says Goff has been practicing chiropractic medicine in the Greater Baton Rouge area for more than 30 years.

Two of his offices in Baton Rouge were raided by federal agents in 2006. Though he was suspected of illegally distributing prescription drugs at the time, he was only indicted for obstruction of justice, and those charges were dismissed.

It's unclear why he was not immediately booked into jail. He's since been released on a $30,000 bond.