Murray 'Candy Man' indicted on drug distribution charges

A federal grand jury on Wednesday morning returned an 18-count indictment against a former Murray doctor and two of his office assistants, accusing the group of running a prescription drug outlet that saw as many as 80 patients a day.

Warren R. Stack, Mindy L. Kramer and Phyllis V. Murray were named in the indictment with charges of distributing a controlled substance, health care fraud and money laundering. The indictment includes distribution charges against Stack in which the drugs were attributed the deaths of five of his patients.

Stack, referred to by some as "The Candy Man," was arrested in May for investigation of dealing large quantities of narcotic pain killers to people without a legitimate medical reason. Investigators said Stack either handed out or wrote prescriptions for more than 3.5 million pain pills from 2001 to May 2007.

According to the indictment, Stack's office prescribed various narcotics, including Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Methadone, Methadose, Percocet and Endocet. The indictment states that Stack, Kramer and Murray routinely billed patients and health care programs for medical exams that never took place.

The indictment states Stack wrote "Express Scripts" from a "make-shift desk in his waiting room" where he would quickly review the patient's file "without conducting even the pretense of a medical examination." Stack's office, which saw as many as 80 patients a day, charged between $70 to $200 per patient visit and made an estimated $750,000 from fraudulent conduct, according to the charges. The indictment states he shared those proceeds with Kramer and Murray through payroll deposits.

The U.S. Attorney for Utah is planning a press conference this afternoon to talk about the case.

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