Money was motive for drug-dealing SC doctor now facing prison time
COLUMBIA, SC -- Dr. Mackie J. Walker of Aiken, once a respected podiatrist, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to being the key figure in a major South Carolina oxycodone drug trafficking ring.
Walker, 63, who sold oxycodone prescriptions to dozens of addicts and drug traffickers for up to $1,000 per prescription, is now subject to being sent to prison for up to 20 years, prosecutors said.
“Dr. Walker preyed upon the vulnerabilities and imperfections of various individuals for his own financial benefit,” assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Garner told federal Judge Michelle Childs during Walker’s guilty plea hearing at the federal courthouse in Columbia.
In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to charge Walker with the overdose death of a patient for whom he had prescribed oxycodone, Garner told Childs. Walker had “no legitimate medical purpose” in writing that prescription, Garner said.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article96276377.html