Jeff George's pill mill manager gets time served, will leave prison

Oct 07, 2023

A former manager for a West Palm Beach pain clinic owned by one of the biggest pill mill kingpins in the country was resentenced to time served this week after a successful appeal of his guilty plea to second-degree murder in the overdose death of a patient.

Theodore Obermeyer had served 11 years of a 15-year sentence in the February 2009 overdose death of Joseph "Joey" Bartolucci from highly potent doses of a painkiller prescribed by a doctor at East Coast Pain on Okeechobee Boulevard, owned by Jeff George.

Bartolucci was days shy of his 25th birthday when he was found dead in his West Palm Beach home. Partially filled prescription bottles of Dilaudid and Xanax were nearby. The day before Bartolucci died, Dr. Gerald Klein had prescribed him 150 Dilaudid pills. Bartolucci filled the prescription at a Walgreens, according to court documents.

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Obermeyer pleaded guilty to felony second-degree murder, which in Florida is a charge against a person who did not directly cause the death of another but contributed to it while committing another felony. Obermeyer's felony was conspiracy to traffic hydromorphone. He testified in Klein's murder trial that pill sales were meant only to enrich the clinic's owners and disregarded the well-being of the patient.

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Obermeyer appealed his conviction to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, saying that prosecutors could not prove the conspiracy charge with the evidence they had and that his attorney did not give him the correct advice about taking the plea deal. The appeals court judges sent the case back to the lower court, pointing out potential flaws in the evidence and suggesting Obermeyer's claims might be credible.

They said the amount of the drug prescribed only to Bartolucci and only for a single day, as prosecutors charged, was not enough for the conspiracy charge. And while the clinic dispensed that drug, it didn't have in stock the dosage prescribed to Bartolucci, so he had to fill the prescription at a drug store.

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Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd on Monday sentenced Obermeyer to time served. Obermeyer had pleaded guilty in 2012 and was sentenced in 2016. Famed defense attorney Michael Salnick represented him. Shepherd never talked about whether there was ineffective counsel, said Glenn Herbert Mitchell, Obermeyer's attorney. The defense and prosecution had agreed to a "correction of his sentence," he said.

"The parties reached a fair resolution," he said.

Jeff George with his brother Chris ran what federal agents described as the most sophisticated painkiller trafficking ring in the U.S. They made an estimated $43 million from several clinics in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Jeffrey George and Obermeyer had been friends since preschool.

Jeff George also pleaded guilty to felony murder in Bartolucci's death and was sentenced to 20 years. His release date is scheduled for 2030. He, too, testified against Klein, who ended up being acquitted of Bartolucci's death.

More:George pill mill ran as usual after patient's death, ex-manager says

Obermeyer testified in Klein's trial that his childhood friend asked him to run the clinic and later showed him how to order high quantities of prescription drugs for an in-house pharmacy.

Klein, Obermeyer and Jeff George were all arrested in a sweeping state and federal indictment of dozens of doctors, clinic workers and George family members in 2011. But the three men were the only ones charged in state court in a murder and drug trafficking case tied to Bartolucci's death.

Chris George, who was released from federal prison last year, said Monday that in light of the DCA ruling, his brother will file an appeal soon.

The Palm Beach Post won awards for its extensive coverage and investigations into the George Brothers' pain empire and how the pill mills in Florida fueled the heroin epidemic.

Holly Baltz is the investigations editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected]. Support local investigative journalism. Subscribe today.