Two associates of accused “pill mill” doctor Kevin Clemmer, who avoided prison by cooperating with federal prosecutors, tested positive for drugs while on probation.
Tina Sheldon, also known as Tina Stanfield, received three months in prison Monday after a drug test revealed she was smoking methamphetamine.
Sheldon, 42, worked in Clemmer’s Wheat Ridge clinic.
Angela Lee tested positive for using oxymorphone, an opiate, forcing probation officials on Jan. 18 to increase her mental-health counseling requirements to weekly from twice a month.
The two women each faced up to 20 years in prison for their roles in a suspected drug-distribution ring before they decided to cooperate with prosecutors and plead guilty to lesser charges on Nov. 18.
The women were sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Just 10 days after Sheldon assured U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn that she would stay clean for her grandchildren, she tested positive for methamphetamine.
On Dec. 6, she told a probation officer, “I went by a friend’s house and did 40 cents worth of meth; I relapsed.”
She tested positive for methamphetamine again Dec. 15 and later admitted she was smoking the drug.
Lee, 39, admitted in early January that she took oxymorphone, a painkiller that was not prescribed to her, after her test came back dirty.
Clemmer, who is charged with more than 50 criminal counts alleging he was writing prescriptions for painkillers outside the scope of professional practice, remains free on $10,000 bond.
He was set to appear in federal court Friday for a status hearing, but the case was postponed due to the snowstorm.
Family members of Clemmer’s patients who died of drug overdoses complained to the Colorado Medical Board because they believe his prescriptions led to their deaths.
Clemmer is not charged with contributing to the deaths of patients.
Sheldon and Lee pleaded guilty to distribution of oxycodone.
Court records show Sheldon sold drugs in the parking lot of Clemmer’s clinic to an undercover agent.
Lee was caught filling a prescription for painkillers, then selling them to another person who also was indicted in the alleged drug conspiracy.
