News Release]
April 30, 2010
Contact: Melissa Bell,
Number: 202-616-4740

Anesthesiologist Pleads Guilty and is Sentenced for Taking Medication
from Hospital

APR 30 -- Washington, D.C. April 29, 2010 - Special Agent in Charge Ava A. Cooper-Davis, Drug Enforcement Administration announced that yesterday 42-year-old anesthesiologist, Duane Stillions, has pled guilty and been sentenced for unlawfully possessing Fentanyl. The sentencing was also announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier, Washington Division, Special Agent in Charge Nick DiGiulio, Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Philadelphia Region, and Assistant Director in Charge Shawn Henry of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office.

Stillions, 42, of the 1000 block of Massachusetts Avenue, NW, entered his guilty plea in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Florence Y. Pan, who placed the defendant on one year of probation.

“Today's sentencing shows that the DEA does not distinguish between a dealer on the street or a doctor in a white coat; if you break the law, we will go after you,” stated Ava A. Cooper-Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to the factual proffer presented to the Court by the government, Duane Stillions, a resident of the District of Columbia, was a staff anesthesiologist at a hospital in the District of Columbia. Several years prior to May 2009, Dr. Stillions voluntarily entered and completed an inpatient substance abuse treatment program. He subsequently enrolled in - and complied with the requirements of - the physician’s health program, with monitoring and advocacy by the Physicians Health Committee of the District of Columbia Medical Society, all with the full knowledge and approval of the hospital and the District of Columbia Board of Medicine.

On at least two separate occasions between on or about May 4 and on or about May 24, 2009, Dr. Stillions possessed small amounts of a medication known as Fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance, by retaining for personal use amounts that would have been discarded as excess according to normal hospital procedures. Dr. Stillions possessed these amounts of Fentanyl without lawful authority.

On May 24, 2009, Dr. Stillions voluntarily sought inpatient treatment for himself at a medical facility in Arizona, and he did not thereafter return to the hospital. Dr. Stillions’ employment was subsequently terminated. He voluntarily has relinquished his DEA license to prescribe scheduled substances; he voluntarily has relinquished all of his medical licenses, and he voluntarily has renewed his enrollment and monitoring in the physician’s health program.

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