By FRANK LEWIS

PDT staff Writer

A State Medical Board of Ohio hearing examiner issued a recommendation Friday that the medical license of Dr. James E. Lundeen Sr. be permanently revoked. The examiner found that Lundeen was overprescribing medication to patients at his offices in Portsmouth and Plymouth. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Office has been involved in the investigation and represented the State Medical Board at the license hearing.

“We are pleased with the examiner’s recommendation that Lundeen’s medical license be permanently revoked,” DeWine said. “We will continue to aggressively fight ‘pill mills’ that endanger the lives of Ohioans and harm families.”

Last March, investigators from the Attorney General’s Office, Bureau of Workers Compensation, the State Highway Patrol, and other agencies raided Lundeen’s offices in Portsmouth and Plymouth. Lundeen’s medical license was suspended by the State Medical Board in May, based on the finding that Lundeen’s continued practice presented a danger of immediate and serious harm to the public.

In August, the State Medical Board began an administrative hearing in the matter before a hearing examiner. During the hearing, the Attorney General’s Office presented evidence regarding 26 patients to demonstrate that Lundeen’s practice of medicine fell below the minimal standards expected of care. Two of Lundeen’s patients testified at the hearing, explaining that Lundeen did not perform even cursory physical evaluations at appointments when he would prescribe ever-increasing amounts of narcotics to them. DeWine said the patients testified that, as a result of Lundeen’s overprescribing, they became increasingly addicted to their prescriptions.

The State Medical Board is expected to vote in December whether to accept the hearing examiner’s recommendation.

Meanwhile, Lundeen is attempting to retrieve some of the items taken in that raid. He had a hearing last week in Municipal Court Judge Steven Mowery’s courtroom in which two representatives from the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation were asked by Mowery about whether a Blackberry smart phone was on the list. Mowery is to make a ruling in the next week.

FRANK LEWIS may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.