PURCELL, OK -- A Blanchard man went before a judge this week after authorities say he doctor shopped among 195 different doctors in less than a two year time period. Twenty-nine year old Keith Simmons was finally caught when one of those doctors became suspicious and contacted authorities. The doctor looked Simmons up on a drug monitoring system and quickly found something wasn't right.
195 doctors, 105 pharmacies and more than 4,000 pills; it's hard to imagine anybody racking up stats like that in just more than a year's time, but that's exactly what authorities say Simmons did to feed his prescription pill addiction.
"He was kind of at the time our poster child for prescription fraud and doctor shopping here in Oklahoma," Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward said. "He was by far the biggest abuser of the system that we have here in Oklahoma ever identified."
Despite that he received no prison time. Simmons was sentenced to five years probation plus fines, even though prosecutors asked for three years behind bars. They say he was a truck driver for a large Oklahoma Electrical Company and should have gotten more punishment.
"He was serving as a commercial truck driver driving eleven axle vehicles and so you can obviously see the state's concern even though two employees from OG&E came to court and testified they'd like to see him come back and work there again," McClain County District Attorney George Burnett said. "The state's obviously concerned about a person like this driving trucks on the streets of our state."
"He used opportunities through his job as he's going around to different communities doing work that he would stop into a community and visit some of the local physicians or dentists," Woodward said.
It's a past Simmons says he now hopes to put behind him.
"It's over and we're moving forward," he said.
OG&E officials say this is unfortunate and Simmons was suspended and ultimately terminated after his actions came to light.
195 doctors, 105 pharmacies and more than 4,000 pills; it's hard to imagine anybody racking up stats like that in just more than a year's time, but that's exactly what authorities say Simmons did to feed his prescription pill addiction.
"He was kind of at the time our poster child for prescription fraud and doctor shopping here in Oklahoma," Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward said. "He was by far the biggest abuser of the system that we have here in Oklahoma ever identified."
Despite that he received no prison time. Simmons was sentenced to five years probation plus fines, even though prosecutors asked for three years behind bars. They say he was a truck driver for a large Oklahoma Electrical Company and should have gotten more punishment.
"He was serving as a commercial truck driver driving eleven axle vehicles and so you can obviously see the state's concern even though two employees from OG&E came to court and testified they'd like to see him come back and work there again," McClain County District Attorney George Burnett said. "The state's obviously concerned about a person like this driving trucks on the streets of our state."
"He used opportunities through his job as he's going around to different communities doing work that he would stop into a community and visit some of the local physicians or dentists," Woodward said.
It's a past Simmons says he now hopes to put behind him.
"It's over and we're moving forward," he said.
OG&E officials say this is unfortunate and Simmons was suspended and ultimately terminated after his actions came to light.
