Suspended Middletown doctor pleads guilty in opiate ring probe

The Middletown pain relief specialist, whose license was suspended during a year-long investigation into an illegal opiate distribution ring, admitted writing forging Oxycodone prescriptions on pads created for another doctor while on suspension.

Dr. Kenneth Lewandowski, 53, pleaded guilty in Freehold Monday to a second-degree charge of distributing or dispensing Oxycodone and a third-degree count of unlawful practice of medicine, according to the office of acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni.

At his scheduled April 15 sentencing, prosecutors are expected to recommend six years in prison, with a discretionary two-year parole stipulation on the second-degree charge, with a three-year sentence on the lesser count to run concurrently.

Investigations began in November 2014 when Middletown police received a report from a pharmacy in the township about a fraudulent Oxycodone prescription. The investigation grew to involve numerous patients, Lewandowski, and Thomas Menendez of Middletown, his ex-office manager and co-defendant who still awaits trial. Lewandowski was arrested in December 2014.

He told the court Monday that after his suspension, he acquired blank pads marked for another doctor who was also a prospective business partner. He said that he gave some of them to Menendez, who sold them to former patients of Lewandowski's noiw-shuttered Red Bank practice.

Lewandowski admitted personally forging prescriptions in another doctor's name for four former patients who used them to get 120 Oxycodone pills apiece.

Menendez faces second-degree charges of conspiracy and distribution of a dangerous controlled substance, and third-degree counts of unlawful practice of medicine, forgery and uttering a forged document.

Investigators said that both got the pads without consent and sold them for cash with no needs assessments, dredging up former patients of Lewandowski's Red Bank office and charging $300 to $400 per prescription.

Lewandowski was also accused of conspiring with physician's assistant Ronald Scott, 65, of Toms River, who allegedly wrote prescriptions for former Lewandowski patients without a licensed doctor's approval.