Critics of Pennsylvania's discipline of wayward doctors now have a prime example: an incompetent doctor that continued to practice even after being convicted of a felony.
Richard A. Brown may not have even finished all his medical coursework, prosecutors allege, describing a complicated set of transfers between foreign medical schools. Brown may have falsified transcripts and even residency evaluations for residencies that apparently never even took place.
Then, after he passed the licensing exam on his third try, he began practicing medicine. He was convicted on a felony drug charge in 2003, but kept practicing medicine through loopholes in Pennsylvania. Now he is accused of illegally prescribing 270 drugs for six known drug users, including Percocet, Oxycontin, Xanax and Vicodin.
And just in case he escapes these charges, this time he and his wife face tax-evasion charges, too.
To learn more about the case against Brown
- read this Philadelphia Inquirer piece