CLARION – Thomas Radecki “created an addiction time bomb” in the Clarion County area, according to Clarion County District Attorney Mark T. Aaron, speaking at Radecki’s June 1 sentencing hearing.
Radecki was convicted in April by a Clarion County jury of 12 felony charges, including nine counts of prescribing controlled substances by a practitioner, one count of conspiracy to prescribe controlled substances by a practitioner, one count of corrupt organizations/employee and one count of dealing in illegal proceeds.
Thomas Radecki
The jury found him not guilty of 13 similar charges.
Following statements from law enforcement, victims in the case and Radecki’s wife and defense attorney John “Jack” Troese, Clarion County Judge of Common Pleas James Arner sentenced Radecki to serve 133 to 266 months (11 to 22 years) in state prison with restitution costs of $430,000.
In sentencing Radecki, Arner said, “With regard to running a corrupt organization founded by the defendant, one point the defendant made was, ‘he had the best interest of his patients in mind.’ The defendant also showed to be apologetic for his sexual relations with the patients.”
“As a medical professional you, Radecki, had obligation to treat and not have relations. You are trying to separate the two. You can’t do that. I can’t believe you can’t admit to being wrong to your practices.”
“You admitted (today) of knowing instances where your medication was being sold on the street. I don’t believe when you say you didn’t know what was going on. I think you knew exactly what was going on. You were careless and you proceeded as if nothing was happening.”
Arner also reminded the defense of the opportunities he (Arner) gave to Radecki in the past to bring his evidence forward but he never did.
Impact statements
Leading up to Radecki’s sentencing, Clarion Detective William H. Peck IV, District Attorney Mark Aaron and state Tpr. Terry Thomas were brought up for questioning by Senior Deputy Attorney General Mark Serge and Troese.
Through the questioning, it became clear from their professional observations how the community suffered in 2011 and 2012 during the time Radecki’s office was practicing.
Aaron proceeded to express his opinion by saying, “We’re still dealing with Subutex and Suboxone users. The addicts were created. My opinion is (since then) people moved to meth.”
In addition, Peck told the court how he became aware of Radecki’s issues along Main Street and Radecki’s office parking lot when needles were being found and reported.
Peck also described Radecki’s first office on Main Street as being in a “family-oriented area.”
“He impacted the community I work with every day. My point is, Judge, there are four different positions the community trusts today: a judge, attorneys, police and doctors. I’m asking this court to hold him to a higher standard,” Peck said.
Serge presented a letter from a former employee of Radecki’s who asked if he (Serge) would read the letter to the court.
The letter described how detrimental it has been since working for Radecki, now 70, and how the former employee has been living in fear of getting another job due to Radecki betraying her trust.
The letter concluded, “Radecki should get the maximum sentence for abusing his power. What happened to me is nothing to what happened to his patients.”
Alongside Serge, attorney Maureen Sheehan proclaimed to the court, “(Radecki) is not showing any remorse, regret and ignored all red flags.”
Troese defended the statement on Radecki’s behalf by saying, “He never felt remorse because he felt he wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Through the sentencing, the only time Radecki apologized was for one of the sexual relationships he had with a particular patient that resulted in the birth of a child.
Radecki’s wife approached the bench to defend her husband by saying, “I believed in the program. Overall, Tom worked incredibly long hours because he was devoted.”
She concluded her defense by pleading for Radecki to not be sent to jail as it would be humiliating to him and his family to continue to stay in the community after what has been reported in the media.
Radecki is sentenced to serve out his sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh.
Background
In 1992, Radecki was revoked of his medical license in Illinois for “engaging in immoral conduct of an unprofessional nature with a patient.”
His license was restored in 2002 and placed in probation until 2008.
In 2011, Radecki was the highest purchaser in the nation of the drug Subutex.
Subutex and Suboxone, also known as buprenorphine are drugs that were created to assist withdraw symptoms for opioid addictions such as heroin but it is also a drug that can be abused.
Through 2012, Radecki was running four clinics in different counties each with visiting practitioners.
Radecki began writing prescriptions for buprenorphine under the other physician’s names.
As a whole, Radecki treated close to 1,000 patients with Subutex and Suboxone out of his four practices, also from his home even though his Clarion office was the only one registered to distribute the controlled drugs.
Radecki also had sexual relations with several of his patients in exchange for the drug.
When a search was conducted of Radecki’s offices in 2012, over 500,000 doses of Subutex and Suboxone were found.
Radecki gave up his medical license after the search.
