By FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

A West Portsmouth couple and two others, who had been scheduled to go on trial Monday for charges surrounding the operation of a Waverly pain clinic, are now scheduled for trial on May 1. The trial is to be held in U.S. Southern District Court in Cincinnati, Judge Sandra S. Beckwith presiding. The trial has been continued several times.

Nancy Sadler, 48, owner of the clinic and her husband Lester “Ape” Sadler, 56, both of West Portsmouth; Dr. Brenda Banks, 58, of Columbus; and Sandy Wells, 53, of South Shore, Ky., are all scheduled to go on trial in the case. Although the charges vary among the defendants, they all stem from indictments surrounding the operation of the pain clinic.

Another previous defendant, James Sadler, 81, father of Lester Sadler, changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on Dec. 20, 2011. Sadler pleaded guilty to selling, distributing or dispensing controlled substances.

That pain clinic began in 2001 in Piketon under the name “1st Care Family Practice,” then moved to Waverly in 2002, changing the name to “Health Solutions Plus LLC. The name was changed again in 2004 to “Ohio Medical and Pain Management LLC.”

In February, Beckwith sentenced Paul H. Volkman, one of the earliest Scioto County Pain Clinic operators, to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment for illegally prescribing and dispensing pain pills outside the scope of a legitimate medical practice that resulted in the deaths of four people between 2003 and 2005.

A jury convicted Volkman, 64, on May 10, 2011, of 18 crimes, including four counts of illegal drug distribution that resulted in death. He received a life sentence on each of those counts. Sentences on 13 other counts range from 10 to 20 years and were ordered to be served concurrently. He was sentenced to an additional five years in prison to be served consecutively for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Volkman was also ordered to forfeit $1.2 million.

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