United States Drug Enforcement Administration

OAKLAND, Calif. - On Sept. 4, 2014, a federal grand jury indicted Doctor Michael Roger Chiarottino, with fourteen counts of distributing Schedule II controlled substances, and one count of distributing a Schedule III controlled substance outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.

The Indictment against Chiarottino was unsealed at his initial appearance this morning in United States District Court in Oakland.

According to the indictment, Chiarottino, 66, of Corte Madera, is alleged to have improperly prescribed controlled substances including oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, and methadone.

Chiarottino was arrested on Sept. 8, 2014, made his initial appearance in federal court today, and was released on $75,000 bail. Chiarottino's next scheduled appearance is on Sept. 15, 2014, at 9:30 a.m. for a bail review hearing before the Honorable Donna M. Ryu, United States Magistrate Judge.

The maximum statutory penalty for each count of distributing a Schedule II controlled substance, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), is 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $1,000,000, a lifetime of supervised release, a mandatory minimum three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The maximum statutory penalty for the count of distributing a Schedule III controlled substance, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(E)(i), (iii), is 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $500,000, a lifetime of supervised release, a mandatory minimum two years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Garth Hire is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Melissa Dorton. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Livermore Police Department, Pleasanton Police Department, Marin County Narcotics Task Force, and the Medical Board of California. This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force a focused multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Please note, an indictment contains only allegations and, as with all defendants, Michael Roger Chiarottino must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.