St. Clair Shores physician convicted in unlawful distribution case

ST. CLAIR SHORES — A former St. Clair Shores physician has been convicted of 21 counts related to the unlawful distribution of prescription drugs, according to a press release.

United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison said Bernard Shelton, 66, was also convicted of a patient’s overdose death that resulted from the unlawful prescribing.

Shelton was convicted by a federal jury in Detroit, the press release said. His office was located in St. Clair Shores on Harper Avenue, and the patient who died was a St. Clair Shores resident.

According to the press release, Shelton’s trial began on February 28, 2023, and was conducted before United States District Judge Denise Page Hood.

“The evidence demonstrated that Shelton prescribed over 5.5 million doses of controlled substances between April 2013 and December 2016,” the press release said. “Shelton prescribed over 2.7 million doses of Schedule II controlled substances such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, usually prescribing the types and strengths of drugs most valuable on the street market.”

Detective Sgt. Eric Bowers with the St. Clair Shores Police Department said the investigation into Shelton started when they received an anonymous tip that he was over-prescribing controlled substances to patients.

“The information that was explained to us was that Shelton would basically not do any physical exam, and he would prescribe anything you would ask for,” Bowers said.

One of the most concerning drug combinations Shelton prescribed, Bowers said, was a mixture of three drugs called the “Holy Trinity” by medical professionals. It’s a combination of a benzodiazepine, an opioid or opiate, and a muscle relaxant.

“When you combine all three of those, they have overlapping side effects … those overlap and those overlapping side effects depress a person’s central nervous system and it depresses their respiratory system,” Bowers said.

Bowers went on to say the drug combination wasn’t prescribed by legitimate doctors.

“They don’t prescribe it unless you’re severely ill, like with terminal cancer. It’s not something you give to people because it can result in death,” Bowers said.

The initial investigation conducted by the St. Clair Shores Police Department took around six months, Bowers said. During that investigation, they were able to work with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for their expertise and send in an investigator to make three undercover appointments.

During those three separate appointments, Shelton reportedly prescribed him the controlled substances in the “Holy Trinity” without conducting a proper examination.

“There was no medical, legitimate medical condition that would justify those medications, so he basically just went in, got the pills with no physical exam,” Bowers said.

The press release said Shelton has been unable to prescribe controlled substances since January 2017. Bowers said that Shelton’s medical license was suspended in 2017 and his first official court appearance was in October 2017.

Bowers said the individual who died was from St. Clair Shores and was under Shelton’s care when he died. He said there were other patients who died under Shelton’s care, but they were not able to charge him with those deaths due to other things found in the patients’ systems.

“With the one death that they charged him with, they found the medications that he had prescribed to that individual in his system,” Bowers said. “And then they were able to say, ‘Hey because of what he did, he got him addicted to these drugs and he ultimately overdosed on these drugs that he had prescribed to him.’”

Bowers said the St. Clair Shores Police Department and the DEA have done everything they could do for the families in a criminal sense.

“Now that this is all said and done and he has been convicted, I would think that these families would have a recourse like a civil lawsuit type recourse,” Bowers said.

Ison said in a press release her office is committed to holding individuals like Shelton accountable and to keeping opioids off the streets.

“Doctors who dangerously prescribe opiates for their own profit endanger the community just like other drug dealers. When a doctor causes an overdose death with an illegitimate prescription, we will not hesitate to hold the doctor accountable,” Ison said. “My office is committed to keeping highly addictive opioids off the street, and we will aggressively investigate and prosecute medical professionals or anyone else who illegally distribute controlled substances.”

According to court documents, John Minock requested to withdraw as Shelton’s counsel on April 4, citing a breakdown of attorney-client relationship. This led to a request to extend the filing time for a new trial from the regular 14 days to 30 days, after the motion of counsel to withdraw is approved by the court.

“If new counsel is appointed, out of fairness,” the time for filing a motion for a new trial should be extended to give Shelton an adequate opportunity to file a motion for a new trial, Minock stated in his motion.

At press time, Minock was unavailable for comment and had not returned messages left with his office.

According to the press release, Shelton will be sentenced to between a minimum of 20 years in prison to a maximum of life in prison in July.