An indictment was returned charging Dr. Scott Henry Cooper, 58, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, with illegally prescribing controlled substances, resulting in the death of a patient. The doctor was also charged in twenty-two separate counts of illegally prescribing prescription drug controlled substances to several different patients. The indictment alleges that from March 31, 2014 to December 31, 2018, Dr. Scott Cooper wrote more than 20,000 prescriptions for controlled substances, totaling over 800,000 dosage units. The street value of the pills prescribed by the defendant was in excess of $5.5 million. The defendant is alleged to have knowingly prescribed prescription drug controlled substances outside the course of legitimate medical practice and for no legitimate medical purpose, in furtherance of the scheme, and in combinations that were known to be dangerous and medically unnecessary. The indictment further alleges that Dr. Cooper often prescribed with cursory examinations, or without bothering to examine the patient at all. As a result of this practice, he allegedly authorized monthly controlled substance prescriptions for one patient while that patient was incarcerated for almost two years. It is not known who actually received and filled that patient’s prescriptions while he was in custody. One of Dr. Cooper’s patients did not survive. Dr. Cooper is charged with prescribing this patient a prescription for 478 methadone 10 mg pills on June 17, 2015. The patient died of a methadone overdose in the early morning hours of June 18, 2015.
