Dr. Jeffery Lewis

Dr. Odette Campbell

Dr. Odette Campbell, 54, and Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, 64, allegedly wrote prescriptions for controlled substances to patients without the required registration numbers, said Denton police Detective Rachel Fleming.

Doctors are required to have both a federal and state registration number to write prescriptions for controlled substances, including hydrocodone, Fleming said.

Campbell’s federal registration number was suspended Tuesday morning when U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents served her with a license suspension during an ongoing investigation, Fleming said.

The radiation oncologist reportedly told investigators the suspension wasn’t a big deal and she would find another doctor to write her patients’ prescriptions, Fleming said.

Investigators found prescriptions written by Lewis — Campbell’s ex-husband and a former ophthalmologist in the area — for pain medication for her patients, although he was unauthorized to do so, Fleming said.

Campbell was charged with fraudulent use of a controlled substance registration number and released from the city jail Friday afternoon on $20,000 bail.

Lewis was still in the city jail Friday in lieu of $40,000 bail on two counts of the same charge.

Campbell declined to comment on the charge, said Officer Ryan Grelle, a spokesman for the Denton Police Department.

Lewis released a written statement that said, “I was unaware that my DEA license had expired. … I had not looked at it in a year. In my mind, I thought it expired at the end of August.”

Lewis, who practiced medicine in the Denton area for 28 years, had moved to Fairfield, Iowa, last year and had been visiting family in Denton for the last few months, he stated.

When Campbell asked him to help her out in her medical office after receiving a DEA license suspension, he complied and treated about 10 patients, some of whom he prescribed diazepam or hydrocodone, Lewis stated.

Several pharmacists called Lewis about the prescriptions he wrote and told him his DEA license was expired, Lewis stated, and so he immediately stopped treating patients.

Both Campbell and Lewis have received disciplinary action in the past from the Texas Medical Board, said Jane McFarland, chief of staff for the board.

So far in 2009, the board fined Campbell $1,000 after finding she failed to secure a cabinet, which resulted in 15 boxes of a controlled substance to disappear from her office. The board also fined her $3,000, saying she failed to respond to a board subpoena, according to medical board documents obtained by the Denton Record-Chronicle.

In 2007, the board issued an agreed-upon order to Campbell regarding the standard of care for three of her cancer patients, who the board alleged received less than adequate care, according to the documents.

She was fined $2,500, had to undergo formal instruction on handling medical records and was required to have another doctor monitor her practice for two years, documents state.

In April 2009 the state board cleared Campbell to practice medicine, documents state.

The medical board also investigated Lewis after a patient went blind sometime after he performed surgery on her, according to medical board records. He received a $1,000 fine and was required to pass the medical jurisprudence exam.

The board cleared him to practice medicine in April 2006.

Fleming said investigators have some of the illegally written prescriptions, but are asking Campbell’s patients or pharmacists — from all over North Texas, including Sherman, Gainesville and Bowie — to come forward if they have or filled a recent prescription from either Campbell or Lewis.

Along with drug abuse, there are issues of child welfare, dangerous drivers and burglaries to consider from individuals abusing prescription drugs, Fleming said.

“We need to convince the pharmacies to report people abusing prescriptions,” she said. “This is not about just putting people in jail — this is about getting people help.”

Bill Neu, a longtime Denton pharmacist, said fraudulent prescriptions have increased in recent years as state regulations crack down on doctors who prescribe and patients who take controlled substance medication.

“Fraudulent prescriptions have increased,” he said. “That’s just something that’s happening nationwide.”

Pharmacists have a responsibility to help determine if there is a legitimate need for prescribed controlled substances and weed out fraudulent prescriptions, Neu said.

Anyone with information may call the Denton Police Department at 940-349-8181.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com.