The former head of the emergency department at Children’s Hospital Colorado pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to 14 counts of prescription-drug fraud.
Dr. Louis Hampers admitted during a hearing to using fake names and falsified prescriptions to obtain painkillers and other drugs at pharmacies along the Front Range. Each count carries potential prison time. Hampers, 45, will be sentenced in October.
As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss 641 other counts of prescription fraud that Hampers was facing.
Hampers, who also worked as a professor at the University of Colorado medical school, was indicted last year and accused of a prescription scheme that stretched back to 2007.
The plea-agreement document says Hampers wrote himself phony prescriptions using five aliases, as well as using the names of two children and an acquaintance. He then filled the orders using fake identification at a rotating set of pharmacies. The agreement says Hampers obtained tens of thousands of pills, which he claimed were all for personal use.
Hampers also faces harassment charges in two state court cases, including one in which he is accused of threatening 9News reporter Deborah Sherman after she told him she did not want to date him.
As a result of his troubles, Hampers lost his medical license and his job.
In the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors in his federal case, Hampers agreed not to try to get his license reinstated until after his sentence and supervised release period have concluded.
Hampers did not comment as he left the courtroom Wednesday.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
