The former doctor sat in courton Friday waiting to be sentenced for a crime that breached every tenet of his professional code. He had run his house in Staten Island like a drug mill, selling the prescription painkiller oxycodone to all comers — including undercover federal agents. The guideline sentence for his crimes was up to six years.
But just by the look of the defendant, Felix Lanting, it seemed likely that he would never serve that much time. Frail and hunched-over at 85, he could only hope to live that long. And with a wife even frailer who depends on him for care, he posed a special challenge for the sentencing judge, Roslynn R. Mauskopf.
A lawyer for Mr. Lanting, James R. Froccaro, asked that his client receive no jail time at all.
“I’m agonizing about what to do,” said Judge Mauskopf, who presided over the case in United States District Court for the Eastern District.
Mr. Lanting’s crimes are typically committed by men a generation younger. A 2010 investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that in seven months, Mr. Lanting wrote and sold more than 3,000 prescriptions for oxycodone, an average of 15 per day, seven days a week.
Neighbors complained about the foot traffic. A relative of someone who overdosed on the pills attacked the front door of Mr. Lanting’s house with an ax. Mr. Lanting hired bouncers to protect his growing business, but they did not stop the undercover agents. When F.B.I. agents arrested him, they found $37,000 in cash and 100 solid silver bars. Eighty thousand dollars more turned up in a safe-deposit box.
In court on Friday, Mr. Lanting, who lost his medical license, stood and pleaded for his life and that of his wife. “I beg the court not to put me in jail because my wife will die,” he said. “I am the only one who is taking care of her.”
He began to cry. “I’m very sorry. I made a mistake. If I could undo it, I would. I’m begging you please.” Judge Mauskopf called a five-minute recess to think.
“If there ever were a case that cried out for mitigation, it is this one, based on the defendant’s age and based on the responsibilities to his wife,” Judge Mauskopf said when she returned. But she said she wanted to punish him.
She sentenced him to six months of house arrest, five years of probation and a $25,000 fine. She said Mr. Lanting might have to get someone else to take his wife to her medical visits.
“You need to feel the restrictions on your liberty,” she said. “The fine is meant to hurt and to punish you for what you did.”
No Jail Time for Doctor, 85, Convicted of Drug Charge
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No Jail Time for Doctor, 85, Convicted of Drug Charge
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No Jail Time for Doctor, 85, Convicted of Drug Charge
