Hoa Nguyen

htnguyen@lohud.com





ORANGETOWN – A Pearl River father was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for the illegal sale of painkillers linked to the deaths of two other young men in the hamlet.

Craig Oleksowicz, 30, pleaded guilty in October to illegally distributing oxymorphone, admitting he used workers' compensation benefits at the Pearl River CVS to fill prescriptions of the painkiller. He then sold them to three or four people who distributed it to Austin O'Farrell, 20, of Pearl River, who overdosed July 18, 2011, and William Raftery, 21, also of Pearl River, who died Oct. 16, 2011.

"The illegal distribution of highly addictive and dangerous prescription pills is the fastest-growing drug problem in the country," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. "Today's sentence of 10 years in prison for Oleksowicz's crimes shows how seriously this office takes this public health epidemic."

Prior to sentencing, Oleksowicz's family and friends asked the judge for leniency, saying he is a doting father who had custody of his 5-year-old daughter prior to his arrest. Oleksowicz also had been helping his mother since his father died seven years ago and his brother, who is autistic.

"He did a very dumb thing of which he is so regretful of," Oleksowicz's mother, Jessie, said in a handwritten letter included with the court files. "He can never get back his daughter's playdates, birthday parties, and nursery school graduation, her first day at kindergarten. This did not affect just him but the whole family. We don't have a name like Smith."

Oleksowicz expressed regret in a letter submitted to the court.

"I was very saden (sic) to hear two people have died from using drugs at such a young age," he wrote. "I was only trying to make a few bucks, and now I see how something I thought was nothing really is something and can leave an impact on so many people."

Oleksowicz sold 10 oxymorphone pills for $4 each and 82 methadone pills — substituted at the pharmacy after the oxymorphone became unavailable — for a total of $420, according to a transcript of a conversation taped by a confidential informant working with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Prosecutors said Oleksowicz continued to sell the methadone pills even after learning of O'Farrell's and Raftery's overdoses and told the informant that he shouldn't be blamed for their deaths.

Autopsy and toxicology reports showed O'Farrell, who apparently partied with friends at home while his parents were vacationing in Ireland, died of heart failure due to multiple drug usage, including snorting and ingesting oxymorphone and using Xanax and marijuana, the Rockland County medical examiner said. O'Farrell's family could not be reached.

Raftery, who also crushed and snorted the painkiller after consuming alcohol at a bar, also died of heart failure, the medical examiner said. His family, reached at home, declined to comment.

Dozens of drug overdose deaths have been reported in Rockland, Westchester and Putnam counties in the past three years, and at least six since January.

Staff writer James O'Rourke contributed to this report.