WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a former pill mill kingpin to 20 years following the overdose death of a man.
Local news outlets report Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph Marx sentenced 35-year-old Jeff George with the maximum possible term Wednesday in a plea deal concerning second-degree murder and drug trafficking charges.
In 2011, George made the plea deal to help the government send dozens of his former employees, acquaintances and his mother to prison.
George was arrested following the 2009 overdose death of 24-year-old Joseph Bartolucci of West Palm Beach. Prosecutors say the pills were prescribed to him by former Dr. Gerald Klein while a patient at George’s East Coast Pain Clinic. A jury recently acquitted Klein of murder charges.
Authorities estimated George’s drug empire brought in $43 million.
