Former Mahoning Valley doctor sentenced to 25 years in prison

A Lake Milton doctor was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday for illegally prescribing opioid medications that caused the deaths of two patients.

Martin Escobar, 58, pleaded guilty in January to illegally distributing controlled substances, causing the two deaths, unlawfully distributing a controlled substance to a person under age 21 and health care fraud.

Escobar operated Lake Shore Medical Center along Mahoning Avenue in Lake Milton.

“Due to his behavior, two patients died from overdosing on the drugs he illegally prescribed to them,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle M. Baeppler said in a news release. “Our community is safer with Mr. Escobar now behind bars.”

According to court documents, Escobar prescribed controlled substances out of his medical office, including opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, between March 2015 and October 2019, and “did so outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” the release states.

Escobar “used false diagnoses, falsified patient pain intensity scales in medical charts, increased dosages of controlled substances and prescribed painkillers for prolonged periods without evidence of efficacy to support his unlawful prescription practices,” the release states. He also “failed to pursue treatment options other than controlled substances and falsely claimed to have performed extensive physical examinations on his patients.”

Signs of his patients’ drug addiction and abuse were ignored, and in 2015 and 2016, he illegally “prescribed opioids and other controlled substances to two patients without a legitimate medical purpose,” the release states. Both patients later died from overdoses from the drugs.

“This guy thought he could outsmart the system by concealing his drug dealing behind a doctor’s coat,” Ohio Attorney General David Yost said in the release. “Thankfully, our many partners in the investigation followed the paper trail of his prescription pad and stopped his scheme.”

Escobar surrendered his Drug Enforcement Administration registration — and, subsequently, his ability to prescribe medicine — in January 2020 while under investigation, state records show. The Ohio Medical Board indefinitely suspended Escobar’s medical license in July 2021.

Records show Escobar’s license was initially issued in 2001. Since then, he faced several citations and board reprimands, most relating to continuing medical education that he lied about completing.

This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 4:45 PM.