By Bill Bartleman, The Paducah Sun, Ky.
Oct. 25–Former Princeton pharmacist Kent W. Reed on Wednesday admitted to U.S. District Judge Tom Russell that he was guilty of eight charges of selling prescription drugs to a police informant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Davis Weiser recommended a three-year prison sentence and a $156,000 payment to the federal government to avoid forfeiture of real estate Reed owns on Lisanby Point Road in eastern Caldwell County and Jefferson Street in Princeton. Reed made some of the drug sales at those locations, making them eligible for forfeiture.
Russell will sentence Reed on Feb. 12.
Reed, 66, was indicted on April 10 for illegal sale of prescription drugs including Lortab, OxyContin and Dilaudid. He was released on bond but rearrested two weeks later after making additional sales to an informant working with the Pennyrile Drug Task Force.
After his second arrest, his $50,000 bond was revoked, and he has remained in federal custody.
Reed told Russell that he graduated from pharmacy school in 1966, and after working for others for four years, he opened his own pharmacy in Princeton.
In 1996, he sold the pharmacy but continued to work for the new owner until 2005.
For the last two years, he has worked as a “fill in” at other pharmacies, most of them in Marshall County.
Reed also told Russell that he is taking medication for Parkinson’s disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and thyroid problems, but that those drugs are not affecting his ability to understand the consequences of his guilty plea.
Russell told Reed that there is no probation or parole in the prison system, and that he’ll have to serve his entire sentence.
He will receive credit for the time he has served.
The maximum penalty for the eight drug charges is 100 years in prison and a $5 million fine.
The charges are that between Jan. 29 and April 23, Reed sold more than 1,000 pills to informants. A majority of the pills were either Lortab and oxycodone, highly addictive pain medication.
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