Martinsville doctor found guilty of 460+ counts of opioids distribution

A federal court jury in Abingdon found Dr. Joel Smithers, who previously practiced in Martinsville, guilty of 466 federal counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Virginia announced Dec. 31, 2024. He was also found guilty of one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of illegally distributing controlled substances.

At his Dec. 21, 2024, trial, Smithers was, however, found not guilty on nearly 400 other related counts of drug distribution. The jury also determined that the oxycodone and oxymorphone Smithers prescribed to a West Virginia woman did not result in her death.

Smithers had previously been found guilty of 859 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances and sentenced to 40 years in prison. However, those convictions were later vacated on appeal.

Beau B. Brindley, a Chicago attorney representing Smithers, framed the verdict out of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia as good news. “Dr. Smithers was acquitted of nearly 400 counts,” Brindley said in a statement. “He was, most notably, found not guilty of prescribing medication that caused death — the most serious charge in the case.”

Shane Todd, an acting special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration, saw the outcome differently, stating in a news release that the December conviction “demonstrates Smither’s criminal indifference to the lives of others, and to the families who loved them.”

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement, “The existence of these ‘pill mills’ flooding Southwest Virginia with controlled substances violates one of the first principles of the Hippocratic Oath: to do no harm. Joel Smithers did not seek to treat patients but rather sought to destroy lives for profit.”

Evidence presented at trial showed that Smithers, who opened an office in Martinsville in 2015, prescribed more than 500,000 Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone and fentanyl.

Many of the patients traveled hundreds of miles to see Smithers, who did not accept insurance. He took in over $700,000 in cash and credit card payments prior to a search warrant being executed at his office in March 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Virginia Department of Health Professions mandatorily suspended Smithers license to practice osteopathy and surgery on Oct. 7, 2019.

In February 2024, Smithers’ 2019 conviction was overturned by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. A panel of justices looked to a 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that found the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant knowingly or intentionally violated the law when prescribing controlled substances. In his 2024 opinion, Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote that the court was vacating the convictions “because the jury was improperly instructed and the instructions were not harmless.”

Smithers, who has remained in custody since his original conviction in 2019, is scheduled to be sentenced March 3 in Abingdon. For each distribution count, Smithers faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. For maintaining a place for the illegal distribution of controlled substances, Smithers faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000.

Brindley believes Smithers, “having been found not guilty of the most serious charges,” now faces “a very limited sentence.” And “we also look forward to appealing the remaining convictions and seeing them all reversed,” he said in the statement. “Dr Smithers stood up to the federal government and succeeded.”