UPDATE 11/16/12 @ 5:30 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A pharmacist has been sentenced to six months in prison for illegally dispensing controlled substances in Mingo County.

Prosecutors say 77-year-old James P. Wooley, of Louisa, Ky., also was fined $5,000 Thursday in federal court in Charleston. He also has paid a $500,000 fine in a related civil case for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Prosecutors say Wooley owned and operated drug stores at two locations near Kermit. An investigation revealed that Wooley and other pharmacists under his direction dispensed controlled substances that did not have a doctor's approval.

Wooley pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to fraudulently obtain drugs.

Wooley's conviction stemmed from a federal investigation of a Mingo County clinic that has been shut down.

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UPDATE 2/3/12
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A Mingo County pharmacist has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to acquire or obtain controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.

James P. Wooley, 76, of Louisa, Kentucky was the owner and operator of Stronsnider Drug Store, Inc. which conducted its business operations as SAV-RITE Pharmacy in two locations near Kermit in Mingo County, W.Va.

Wooley entered the plea Thursday in U.S.District Court in Charleston. He was inducted on the charges last month.

Federal prosecutors say that from June 2006 through September 2006, Wooley and other licensed pharmacists under his direction, illegally dispensed controlled substances to patients from Justice Medical Clinic located in Kermit.

Wooley admitted that he knew the prescriptions were not valid because there was no written approval from a doctor.

In addition, at the time these controlled substances were distributed by Wooley and his employees, Justice Medical Clinic was closed for failing to obtain a Certificate of Need from the West Virginia State Health Care Authority.

Wooley also admitted that during the scheme, he issued numerous illegal prescriptions using a physician’s Drug Enforcement Administration number without the physician’s consent.

Wooley faces up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on May 3.

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UPDATE 1/17/12
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Federal authorities have charged a pharmacist with conspiracy as part of a prescription drug investigation in southern West Virginia.

Reports say that federal prosecutors have asked the court to schedule a plea hearing for James P. Wooley.

Wooley was charged earlier this month with conspiracy to illegally acquire or obtain controlled substances. His attorney, Robert B. Allen, declined comment Monday.

The charge stems from an investigation of the Justice Medical Complex in Kermit. Federal prosecutors say the clinic's owner and employees used another person's Medicare provider number to distribute hydrocodone and other controlled substances. Patients were directed to Wooley's pharmacies in Kermit and Stone Coal.

The clinic's owner and two doctors were sentenced in 2010 for their roles in the scheme.

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UPDATE 8/25/10 @ 10:15 a.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The owner of a southern West Virginia pain clinic has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for allowing unauthorized staff members to issue illegal prescriptions and health-care fraud.

U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. on Tuesday also ordered 30-year-old Cameron Justice to pay nearly $200,000 in restitution.

Copenhaver says the Crum resident probably should have never tried to run the Justice Medical Clinic. Justice is a heavy-equipment operator with a high school education.

Copenhaver says the result of Justice's ownership was the establishment of a "moneymaking malignancy on the community that ran amok."

Two doctors at the clinic on the Wayne-Mingo county line were earlier sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

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ORIGINAL STORY 3/4/10
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The owner of the Justice Medical Complex in Mingo County has pleaded guilty to misuse of a DEA registration number and defrauding Medicare.

Cameron J. Justice, 30, of Crum entered the plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Justice admitted he and others employed by the JMC knowingly used the DEA registration number issued to another person to distribute controlled substances such as hydrocodone and alprazolam.

He further admitted that from 2005 to March 2009, he knowingly allowed the clinic to defraud the Medicare program by falsely billing for services personally performed by physicians, which were not, in fact, performed by physicians.

Prosecutors say that patients of the JMC did not normally meet with physicians, but were sometimes given face-to-face examinations and evaluations by nurse practitioners employed by the clinic. As a result, Justice caused the Medicare program to pay approximately $289,000 as a result of fraudulent billing.

Justice, is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He faces up to 14 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.