'Candyman' pleads guilty to conspiracy, fraud

Tom Scott walked out of the federal courthouse and sighed.

The man he believes contributed to the death of his son struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors on Friday, earning him a potential eight-year prison sentence. Dr. Warren R. Stack pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and a pair of health-care fraud charges.

"He took people's lives. He should have to give up the rest of life," Scott said. "And I think he should have to spend the rest of his life in prison."

In court, Stack stood stoically as U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell methodically and clinically went over the terms of the plea deal. The Murray physician, dubbed the "Candyman," admitted to prescribing Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Soma, Methadone, Methadose, Percocet and Endocet to patients after barely seeing them — if he did at all.

"Also during that period of time, I required patients to make their co-payments in cash and then directed my staff to bill various private and public insurance providers as though I had conducted a thorough and professional examination," Stack wrote in his guilty plea filed in federal court. "I collected moneys from those providers as a result of this practice."

Scott's 34-year-old son, Brandon, who had painkillers for a back injury, was one of many people that police alleged had died under Stack's care. But the U.S. Attorney's Office conceded Friday that they could not conclusively link those deaths to him. Stack's attorney, Ron Yengich, insisted that his client was innocent of any deaths.

"We did not plead to any of those, because we never felt that he was responsible," he said. "There was never going to be a date when he pled to being responsible for any death."

Yengich said Stack had a number of supporters who said he was a good physician, but Stack acknowledged he let his practice "get out of control." In his plea deal, Stack admitted to creating a system called "Express Scripts," meeting with patients at a makeshift desk in his waiting room where he would quickly review a file and write a prescription without an exam.

Scott said his son overdosed once and wound up in a coma before dying. Scott sued and won a settlement with Stack, he said. So have several other families, said attorney Jeff Gooch, who described them as "saddened" by the plea deal.

The plea deal that Stack took was rare. Both prosecutors and defense agreed upon an eight-year sentence that the judge has the option to reject. However, if she does, Stack has the option to withdraw his guilty plea on July 21.

E-MAIL: bwinslow@desnews.com