2002-05-10 -- Lickfield, Kevin J. -- Guilty Plea -- News Release

Pennsauken Doctor Admits Conspiring to Distribute OxyContin and Perocet

CAMDEN - A New Jersey doctor admitted today that he conspired to distribute the drugs OxyContin and Percocet by writing false prescriptions which would be filled and then sold, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Kevin J. Lickfield, 40, of Marlton pleaded guilty to a one-count Indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute oxycodone in the forms of OxyContin and Percocet, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Stephen Stigall.

The Indictment also contains a separate forfeiture allegation relating to approximately $45,750 in cash constituting proceeds traceable to the conspiracy to distribute the OxyContin and Percocet pills. Lickfield consented to the forfeiture.

Sentencing for Lickfield is scheduled for by U.S. District Judge Stephen M. Orlofsky, before whom Lickfield pleaded guilty. Lickfield faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Orlofsky will determine the actual sentence based on a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense and criminal history, if any. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time, Christie said.

Lickfield treated patients at Lickfield Family Practice on Westfield Avenue in Pennsauken. From at least as early as November 2000, Lickfield used his medical license as the vehicle to obtain OxyContin and Percocet pills for distribution.

Lickfield admitted today that he wrote prescriptions for OxyContin and Percocet pills in the names of individuals who were never intended to receive or be legitimately entitled to the prescriptions. Lickfield said he and his conspirators had those fraudulent prescriptions filled at pharmacies throughout Southern New Jersey. Lickfield told Judge Orlofsky that his accomplices then sold the OxyContin and Percocet pills obtained from the fraudulent prescriptions. Lickfield further admitted that he kept part of the profits from the sales of the drugs.

Lickfield admitted that he conspired with Daniel T. DeLeo, 40, of Mullica Hill, to distribute the pills. DeLeo and Lickfield both said DeLeo sold them at his office at a Woodbury car dealership, where DeLeo was a salesman. DeLeo, who cooperated in the investigation, pleaded guilty in August 2001. DeLeo does not yet have a sentencing date.

Christie credited Diversion Investigators - federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who investigate illegal distribution of prescription drugs - as well as Special Agents of the DEA, under the direction of Anthony D. Cammarato, Special Agent in Charge, Newark Division, with developing the case against Lickfield.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stigall of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division in Camden.

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Defense Attorney: A. Charles Peruto, Jr., Esq. Philadelphia