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MANHATTAN---The former chief forensic dentist in the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, an oral surgeon, who has private offices in Manhattan and Leonia, NJ, has been indicted for supplying a former patient with prescriptions for various controlled substances, falsifying medical records, and perjury.
The investigation leading to the indictment revealed that Jeffrey Burkes, 58, was treating a 41-year-old woman who was suffering from a joint disorder (TMJ) and prescribing pain medications for the condition. While she was a patient, Burkes began a personal relationship with her.
From Jan. 1, 2002 to May 30, 2004, Burkes is charged with supplying his patient/girlfriend with 80 prescriptions for Vicodin ES, Percocet, Hydrocodone, and Endocet, many of which he gave her under fictitious names and the names of his other patients, including the girlfriend's sister, who was also Burkes' patient. Burkes' girlfriend allegedly filled the prescriptions at pharmacies in Manhattan and paid for them with cash. In addition, Burkes also allegedly administered Demerol, Brevatol, or Valium (Diazepam) intravenously to the girlfriend while they were inside his Manhattan office (875 Fifth Avenue) and her Upper West Side apartment.
Burkes is also charged with perjury stemming from a custody proceeding between his girlfriend and her ex-husband. Both the girlfriend's drug use and relationship to Burkes were among the issues that were addressed in the custody proceeding. On Oct. 18, 2004, Burkes testified at a deposition and allegedly lied when he denied that he had prescribed controlled substances for her in 2004 in her name and in the name of third parties. Furthermore, Burkes offered medical records for his girlfriend's sister that he had allegedly tampered with prior to his testimony, which included numerous false entries relating to prescriptions actually filled by the girlfriend. Then, on Oct. 28, 2004, prosecutors say that Burkes again provided false sworn testimony at a hearing related to the same custody battle in New York County Supreme Court, Part 31, at 111 Centre Street. At that hearing, Burkes denied that he had ever administered opiates to his girlfriend inside or outside his Manhattan office at any time in 2004.
The investigation began in August 2004 after Burkes' girlfriend's sister went to a pharmacy on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in order to pick up a legitimate prescription and discovered that her name was being used to fill numerous prescriptions for drugs that she had never ordered. She requested a copy of her medical records from Burkes and realized that the defendant had modified her files to make it seem like she needed the prescription drugs, which in fact her sister, Burkes' girlfriend, was filling. The sister reported these incidents to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Burkes received his doctor of dental surgery from New York University, College of Dentistry in 1975. Since 1980, the defendant has been the chief forensic dental consultant for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and since Sept. 11, 2001, he has been the chief of the Dental Identification Unit. He is currently on leave of absence from both positions. Burkes is also a visiting faculty member at Columbia University School of Dentistry and Oral Surgery.
Burkes is charged with 15 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance, a class C felony, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison; two counts of tampering with physical evidence and falsifying business records in the first degree, both E felonies, which are punishable by up to four years in prison; and two counts of first degree perjury, a class D felony, which is punishable by up seven years in prison. 11-17-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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