‘Sex for scripts.’ Doctor sent nude photos, illegally gave pills to SC patient, feds say
.jpg "A South Carolina doctor illegally prescribed painkillers to a patient, feds say. He’s been sentenced to prison.")
A South Carolina doctor made a patient feel pressured into trading “sex for scripts,” prescribing hundreds of painkillers to her within months, federal prosecutors said.
David Carlos Rodriguez Jr. sent the woman nude photos over Snapchat during those eight months, when he wrote her 15 prescriptions for oxycodone without asking about her pain or whether she was taking other controlled medications, according to prosecutors.
He made sexual advances toward her and touched her during appointments at his Lake City office between May 2018 and January 2019, including two she filmed, prosecutors said.
The videos she captured showed Rodriguez hugging, kissing and fondling her after he entered the exam room, according to prosecutors. He prescribed her oxycodone after she performed a sex act during one of the appointments, prosecutors said.
Now, a federal judge has sentenced Rodriguez, 50, of Florence to four years and nine months in prison on a charge of distributing oxycodone outside the scope of medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
Federal public defenders representing him didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 13.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty in August, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He illegally prescribed the woman more than 600 oxycodone pills and never questioned her about other drugs she might’ve been taking, though it was clear she was “using illicit drugs,” prosecutors said.
Rodriguez wrote her prescriptions when she was taking suboxone, an opioid addiction treatment medication, prosecutors said. Oxycodone and suboxone shouldn’t be taken together.
One pharmacy wouldn’t provide the woman with oxycodone because she was taking suboxone, according to prosecutors.
Afterward, Rodriguez asked the woman to send photos “of various body parts” and then sent a new oxycodone prescription to another pharmacy, prosecutors said.
He never tried to wean her off the medication and didn’t suggest alternative pain management options, according to prosecutors.
Oxycodone use can lead to addiction, and doctors are supposed to prescribe the opioid for pain management only.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and the South Carolina Department of Public Health investigated Rodriguez, prosecutors said.
His medical license was temporarily suspended in October, according to South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation records.
Rodriguez’s sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Medical providers should be a place of safety and healing, not criminal exploitation,” U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs said in a statement. “This sentence underscores our commitment to prosecuting those who abuse the vulnerable regardless of their profession.”
Florence is about an 80-mile drive northeast from Columbia.
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM with the headline "‘Sex for scripts.’ Doctor sent nude photos, illegally gave pills to SC patient, feds say."
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