Jean Pinkard

Jean Pinkard was a nurse practitioner from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who was 63 years old at the time of her indictment. She was among nineteen people charged in June 2020 by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan in connection with a large-scale illegal opioid prescription scheme centered on the Detroit area. The scheme was run by John Henry Rankin III, who owned and managed two rehabilitation clinics — New Vision Rehab and Preferred Rehab. From September 2017 through June 2020, Rankin paid doctors, nurse practitioners, and other medical professionals, including Pinkard, to write prescriptions for controlled substances for "fake patients" who had no legitimate medical need for the drugs. At times, prescriptions were written for patients who were never examined, with patient names simply provided so that prescriptions and charts could be completed without any encounter taking place. Patient recruiters — referred to in court documents as "marketers" — were paid to maintain a supply of fake patients and funnel them through the clinics. The drugs prescribed included Schedule II opioids: oxycodone, oxymorphone, Percocet (oxycodone-acetaminophen), hydrocodone, and hydrocodone-acetaminophen, as well as promethazine with codeine cough syrup. The medical professionals named in the indictment collectively prescribed more than 1,951,148 dosage units of Schedule II controlled substances. The oxycodone and oxymorphone alone carried a conservative street value of more than $41 million. Pinkard reached a plea agreement and was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substances.