Montgomery County Doctor Sentenced In Prescription Pill Case
By Brad Segall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Montgomery County doctor has been given what basically amounts to a death sentence after being found guilty of prescribing thousands of pills to drug addicts from his office in the North Penn area.
Judge Gary Silow scolded Doctor Richard Ruth telling him he's a danger to society, worse than a common criminal. He sentenced the Franconia physician to 15 to 30 years because there were multiple victims, no signs of remorse and he was running a major drug trafficking operation.
"It's clearly a death sentence for Doctor Ruth. Doctor Ruth is 79-years-old at the end of the month. He got sentenced to 15 years, he'll serve every day of that," defense attorney Marty Mullaney said.
Prosecutors say Ruth wrote prescriptions for more than 80,000 highly addictive pills over a nearly two year period. His son Michael who ran the office was sentenced to 7 to 22 years.
Defense attorneys are asking for a new trial alleging prosecutors failed to reveal that their trial attorney was under investigation for drug dealing at the time of the trial.
