LOGAN COUNTY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – After a four-day trial, a federal jury convicted Brian McDevitt, D.O., 61, of Chapmanville, on four counts of distributing a controlled substance. The jury also ruled that McDevitt must forfeit his West Virginia medical license and the Chapmanville Medical Clinic, where he practiced as a sole provider.
Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that McDevitt unlawfully prescribed controlled substances outside the bounds of professional medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. Specifically, he wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone on May 17, 2022, and March 29, 2024, as well as alprazolam on May 18, 2022, and March 29, 2024.
McDevitt is scheduled for sentencing on May 22, 2025, and faces a maximum prison term of 50 years.
This is not McDevitt’s first conviction. On January 20, 2010, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to misuse a federal registration number and engaging in financial transactions involving proceeds from unlawful activity. He admitted to allowing others to use his registration number to distribute the prescription diet drug phentermine and then converting the cash proceeds for personal gain. As a result, he was sentenced on June 29, 2010, to one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was fined $60,000.
“Dr. McDevitt was one of the original drug dealers in a lab coat and failed to learn his lesson from his prior convictions,” said United States Attorney Will Thompson. “Instead, he chose to continue violating his ethical duties as a physician, enriching himself at the expense of vulnerable West Virginians.”
Thompson commended the investigative efforts of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Route 119 Drug Task Force, which includes members from the Mingo, Logan, and Boone County Sheriff’s Offices, as well as the West Virginia State Police.
“Dr. McDevitt put greed above the health and well-being of his patients, causing significant harm,” said Jim Scott, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s Louisville Division. “Doctors are expected to uphold their oath to do no harm. When they deliberately prescribe controlled substances outside accepted medical standards, they become nothing more than drug dealers in lab coats and should expect to face the full force of our justice system.”
United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston presided over the trial. Assistant United States Attorneys Owen Reynolds and Andrew J. Tessman are prosecuting the case.
