FORMER PIKE COUNTY DOCTOR, HER NURSE SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON

A former doctor who practiced in Pike County, KY. and Floyd County, KY., will spend more than eight years in prison, and a nurse working for her was sentenced to five years, following their conviction on charges related to a drug distribution conspiracy.

Crystal Compton, 43, of Pikeville, KY., practiced medicine out of Pikeville and has been affiliated with Eastern Kentucky Medical Group, Betsy Layne Primary Care, and The Good Doctor. Kayla Lambert, 36, of Regina, KY., was a registered nurse working in Crystal Compton practices.

Back in September 2023, both women were convicted of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to use another person’s DEA registration. Crystal Compton was also convicted of 15 counts of distributing controlled substances.

The jury determined that they took part in a scheme to distribute various prescription pills, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and others, without a legitimate medical need.

Both women were charged with conspiracy to unlawfully use a registration number issued to another person in the course of distributing a controlled substance, conspiracy to distribute Schedule II and IV controlled substances, distribution of Schedule II controlled substances and aiding and abetting.

Crystal Compton’s conviction also included distribution of Schedule II controlled substances and aiding and abetting.

According to a September 25, 2023 news release from the US Attorney’s Office, Compton practiced in several Pike County medical clinics where Lambert was a nurse, and the duo “conspired to unlawfully distribute controlled substances using prescriptions that were not written for a legitimate medical purpose.”

The news release claimed that the two women handed out prescriptions for opioids in “significant quantities and dosages.”

“One individual received prescriptions for 720 methadone 10 milligram  and 180 alprazolam 2 milligram pills in a single month. Another received prescriptions for 480 methadone 10 milligram and 300 oxycodone 10 milligram pills in a single month,” the news release added.

Both women appeared in federal court on Wednesday, February 21, and judgment was officially entered by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Weir on Thursday, February 22, with Judge Weir ordering of the sentencing of Crystal Compton to 100 months (which is 8 years & 4 months) in federal prison and Kayla Lambert to 60 months (which is 5 years). Both women were taken into custody immediately after the hearing, though Crystal Compton had been in custody at the Pike County Detention Center in Pikeville since being convicted last September.

Both judgments also included a three year supervised release upon completion of their respective sentences

OVERVIEW OF THE FEDERAL CASE AGAINST CRYSTAL COMPTON & KAYLA LAMBERT

The federal jury in the September 2023 criminal trial convicted Crystal Compton of conspiring to improperly use a federal prescribing registration; conspiring to illegally dispense controlled substances; and dozens of charges of distributing pain pills and antidepressants by way of prescriptions that were not written for a legitimate medical purpose.

Crystal Compton, who is a Pike County, KY. native who received a degree in osteopathic medicine from the University of Pikeville in 2006, with a practice area of internal medicine. She worked at the hospital in Pikeville before going into private practice at the East Kentucky Medical Group and later at her own practice, called the Good Doctor, according to federal court records. 

After a state investigator raised concerns about Compton’s prescribing, including writing prescriptions for high doses of drugs, federal authorities investigated and a federal grand jury ultimately indicted Crystal Compton and Kayla Lambert, a nurse who worked for her.

In a state licensing proceeding, Crystal Compton argued her prescribing was appropriate, but a federal jury convicted her on 46 charges. The jury convicted Kayla Lambert on a charge of conspiring to improperly use a federal prescribing registration and conspiring to illegally dispense controlled substances. 

The federal prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Smith, said in a sentencing memorandum that the evidence showed many of Crystal Compton’s prescriptions were for “exceptionally high dosages” and that Kayla Lambert sometimes signed Crystal Compton’s name on prescriptions. Andrew Smith said that both Crystal Compton and Kayla Lambert issued prescriptions with “no medical rationale whatsoever” at times. 

Crystal Compton’s attorney, Sebastian M. Joy, however said in a rebuttal in a sentencing memo that witnesses and supporters described Crystal Compton as a caring and compassionate doctor; and that she sometimes traveled to patients’ homes to help them; paid patients’ co-pays herself on many occasions so they wouldn’t miss treatment; and sometimes buy medicine and groceries for her patients.

“She was not a greedy doctor who was out to make money for herself and unjustly enrich herself,” Sebastian Joy wrote. 

Kayla Lambert’s attorney, Ron Diddle, said in a sentencing memo that she is a family-oriented, compassionate person who enjoys helping other people. Kayla Lambert became a caretaker for Crystal Compton, who was injured in a wreck and had serious health problems. But Kayla Lambert became too attached to Crystal Compton and “trusted her beyond measure,” which led to Kayla’s Lambert involvement in the conspiracy, Ron Diddle wrote. 

However, Andrew Smith, the U.S. government prosecutor, pointed to the harm caused by the large amount of improper prescribing by both  Crystal Compton and Kayla Lambert.

Some of Crystal Compton’s patients later sought treatment for opioid addiction, and four of those former patients testified about the role that prescriptions issued by Crystal Compton and Kayla Lambert played in starting or feeding their addiction, Andrew Smith wrote. 

“Compton’s and Lambert’s crimes were not harmless,”  prosecutor Andrew Smith wrote in the government’s sentencing memo. 

In connection as a result to the initial state investigation and subsequent federal indictment, the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure revoked Crystal Compton’s physician practicing medical license in April 2022.