Judge gives SC doctor, turned drug kingpin, 15-year prison sentence

An S.C. doctor, turned drug-dealing kingpin, has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison by a federal judge.

Mackie Walker, 65, once a respected podiatrist in Aiken, was sentenced after pleading guilty. Evidence in federal court showed Walker had been the key figure in a major S.C. oxycodone-trafficking ring. He immediately was taken into custody.

The 15-year sentence for a doctor, handed down by U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs, is unusual for its severity. The case also was unusual because, while doctors have been implicated in cases involving illegal prescriptions, they usually are participants, not leaders of a drug-trafficking ring.

The sentencing comes amidst a national crisis in opioid addiction, which claims the lives of thousands of Americans each year. Oxycodone, an opioid, is a powerful and highly addictive painkiller.

Doctors have wide discretion to write prescriptions for narcotics. To convict a doctor, prosecutors must show a prescription had no legitimate medical purpose.

Walker was motivated by financial gain, assistant U.S. attorney Ben Garner told Childs at a Monday hearing. The doctor controlled a loose ring of patients and others to whom he wrote oxycodone prescriptions, preying "on the vulnerabilities" of his patients, Garner said.

Walker was arrested in 2016. His arrest followed an almost two-year-long investigation by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, launched after receiving an informant's tip.

At one point, DEA agents equipped a woman with a miniature video camera and sent her to Walker's office to show how the doctor wrote prescriptions for money, according to evidence introduced by Garner at earlier hearings. Text messages to and from Walker and an ally also showed the doctor's key role as a decision-maker, supplier and price-setter in the drug ring.

Evidence gathered by the DEA showed Walker sold oxycodone for up to $1,000 a prescription to about a dozen addicts. They, in turn, sold pills from the prescriptions to others.

Since most prescriptions were for 120 pills, and each pill could sell for up to $30, a trafficker could clear a profit of $2,600 by selling all the pills even after paying Walker $1,000 for a prescription. More often, traffickers would take some of the pills for themselves and sell the rest, Garner said.

Walker and others also recruited people that he could sell prescriptions to, evidence showed.

Evidence showed Walker got two people out of jail on bond, wrote them prescriptions for opioids and sent them out to make money.

In all, Walker wrote illegal prescriptions for some 51,000 pills — more than $1 million worth of illegal drugs, Garner said.

Across the nation, overdose deaths from prescription opioids, a narcotic family that includes oxycodone, have quadrupled since 1999, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has labeled the prescription abuse an "epidemic."

In 2014, more than 14,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids. According to the CDC, 701 South Carolinians died in 2014 from prescription overdoses, most involving abuse of opioids, including oxycodone.

In recent hearings, Walker's lawyers — Jack Swerling and Harrison Saunders, both of Columbia — argued to Judge Childs that the doctor was remorseful, had accepted responsibility for his actions and should not get a stiff sentence.

At Walker's age, "any sentence approaching 20 years is, effectively, a life sentence," his lawyers told the judge.

Walker is a recovering alcoholic, his lawyers said. However, he has not touched a drop of alcohol since last September and has attended more than 300 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since January, his lawyers said. Walker also has had severe financial problems stemming from a divorce, they said.

Oxycodone is classified as a Schedule II narcotic, meaning strict regulations govern its use. Known as "hillbilly heroin," "roxy" and "oxy," it gives users a feeling of euphoria. But an overdose can cause extreme drowsiness, a slowing of the heart, and fainting and death, according to the DEA.

U.S. Attorney Beth Drake said, "The court's sentence sends a powerful message to drug dealers with initials behind their name — be they doctor, nurse or veterinarian."

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Judge gives SC doctor, turned drug kingpin, 15-year prison sentence."