He prescribed poison.
A disgraced Baldwin doctor accused of handing out Oxycodone pills to junkies like Skittles was charged with causing the death of two of his overdosed patients today by federal prosecutors.
William Conway, 69, of Flushing, was swept up in a massive June crackdown on pill purveyors after investigators said he wrote prescriptions for a staggering 782,032 Oxycodone pills from 2009 to 2011.
But federal prosecutors slapped Conway with far more serious charges yesterday related to the deaths of Giovanni Manzella, 34, of Long Beach, and Christopher Basmas, 29, of Hicksville.
If convicted, Conway faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years to life and maximum of life in prison for the felony charges. He also faces a long list of additional raps from conspiracy to illegal distribution.
“Sworn to do no harm, Conway allegedly turned his back on his patients’ real needs and turned instead to the pursuit of easy money,” federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch said in the statement released Friday. “The charges unsealed today reflect the tragic consequences of prescription drug trafficking and abuse.”
Manzella died two days after Conway provided him with 480 Oxycodone pills in April of 2011 and Basmas overdosed two days after the dirty doctor wrote him prescriptions for 180 pills in October 2011.
Conway attempted to alter prescription records for Basmas after he died and continued to dole out piles of prescription drugs to his long list of desperate drug addict clients until his arrest.
The physician rarely administered actual medical exams before offering up drugs and simply recorded his clients height, weight and age before handing over the narcotics for a fee.
Prescription pills have rained down on Suffolk County like hail. A report issued by District Attorney Thomas Spota revealed that prescriptions are written 70 percent more in his jurisdiction than the average of any other state in the nation.
Prosecutors said that they were able to charge Conway with the more serious counts yesterday because he was the only doctor providing pills to the dead men.
The June crackdown – that netted 98 arrests – came in the wake of a pharmacy massacre in Medford that left four people slaughtered. Junkie David Laffer gunned down two employees and two customers during a pill stickup and was later sentenced to life in prison.
Conway’s former office flunky, Robert Hachemeister, was also nailed with distribution and conspiracy raps yesterday. He allegedly handed out pills to patients using Conway’s pre-signed stack of prescriptions.