MUNCIE, Ind. — Nearly a decade after it began, the legal saga of William Perry Hedrick apparently ended Friday when the former physician was sentenced to 54 months in prison.
The 62-year-old Hedrick, most recently of Fort Wayne, operated a pain clinic in Muncie that opened in July 2013 and was raided by the Muncie Police Department, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and state licensing officials in October 2014.
Authorities alleged Hedrick's clinics in Indiana contributed to the deaths of eight people by overprescribing pain medications.
At Friday's sentencing hearing, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig said that with his "prescribing habits," Hedrick "killed his patients as a result of his greed."
Defense attorney Spencer Benge of Anderson noted his client had not been charged with causing deaths.
"He did some bad things with his medical license, but he also did some good things," Benge told Delaware Circuit Court 3 Judge Doug Mawhorr.
Hedrick — who lost his medical license as charges against him mounted — in June 2018 was found guilty by a Delaware Circuit Court 3 jury of three counts of forgery and three counts of prescription-related registration offenses.
That resulted in Hedrick being sentenced to two years on electronic home detention by then-Judge Linda Ralu Wolf.
In May, Hedrick pleaded guilty to four more crimes: unlawful dispensation of controlled substances, Medicaid fraud, obstruction of justice and harassment.
The latter two charges stemmed from Hedrick's harassment of a potential prosecution witness had he stood trial on the remaining charges.
A plea agreement, the terms of which were accepted Friday by Mawhorr, called for dismissal of seven other pending charges: unlawful dispersion of a controlled substance, attempted bribery, attempted aiding, inducing or causing perjury, and four counts of corrupt business influence.
Hedrick on Friday said he was "sorry for any or all harm I may have caused."
He also listed, at length, what he had lost as a result of the allegations against him, including his license to practice medicine, his medical-related businesses, his house, his cars, his retirement savings and the "goodwill" of his patients.
Hedrick, who has been held in the Delaware County jail since November, also said he is now more than $1 million in debt.
Craig said "everything (Hedrick) has lost has been a direct result of his actions."
In imposing the 54-month sentence, Mawhorr told Hedrick he had "violated the trust your patients put in you" by operating a "pain-pill factory."
The judge said the former physician had displayed "greed that got out of control."
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
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