A Wareham dentist is accused of trading sex for drugs, according to federal court papers. Wareham police, along with agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, arrested Steven Miller, 68, at his dental practice at 108 High St. in Wareham last week.
Miller was charged in Federal Court in Boston with illegally distributing and dispensing excessive prescriptions for drugs such as Vicodin and Valium to people he was not treating, including an undercover DEA agent, as reported by WCVB-TV Channel 5.
It is alleged that Miller prescribed controlled substances without a valid medical purpose, namely in exchange for sexual favors, according to court papers.
According to court documents, Miller told a cooperating witness he could only discuss pain medications a few times because, “I have a very bad reputation at writing drugs. A couple pharmacies won’t even fill my prescriptions.”
The government witness also told Miller she did not have an insurance card, according to court documents, and he told her he wouldn’t charge and then “with his open hand, struck the woman in the buttocks, asking to see her breasts.”
Miller has apparently had other professional problems in the past, as reported by WCVB-TV Channel 5. He voluntarily surrendered his dentist’s license to the state in December 1984 and entered a treatment facility for chemical dependency, according to state Board Of Registration in Dentistry records.
In 2009, Miller was put on a year’s probation by the board for violating infection control guidelines such as failing to wear a face mask while treating patients, the Board of Registration records showed.
His friends and neighbors say Miller has been struggling since his wife’s death several years ago. Penny L. Timbie, 54, was killed in an O’Neill Tunnel motorcycle crash in August 2008, 10 days after they were married.
In federal court, Miller waived his rights to a probable cause hearing and was released on a $50,000 bond. Miller will be back in court in two weeks. Until then, he is banned from seeing any patients, he must submit to random drug testing and he must undergo a substance abuse program.
