Doctor Receives Jail Sentence for Prescription Malpractice

A Virginian doctor is in hot water over a dangerous case of medical malpractice in which he pled guilty of writing prescriptions to people over the internet that he never met nor examined.

Dr. Torrino Jennings received a year and one day in prison for issuing an estimated 100,000 invalid prescriptions of the muscle relaxant SOMA and other drugs to complete strangers over the internet between 2004 and 2007.  Jennings was paid between $5-$7 for each prescription and, according to court documents, “virtually no request for drugs submitted by the online pharmacies to Jennings for endorsement was ever rejected”.

The Judge went easy on Jennings who faced a maximum sentence of 27 years and nearly $2 million in fines.

This case is a reminder that even those doctors who appear to be reputable can be hiding a dirty secret.  It’s perfectly conceivable that any one of the people that Jennings wrote phony prescriptions for could have had a dangerous reaction that placed their life in danger.