Baltimore County Man Pleaded Guilty To Running "Pill Mill" Out Of Offices In Towson And Owings Mills

BALTIMORE COUNTY - A Third Defendant was sentenced on Tuesday in a federal oxycodone case in Baltimore County, nearly five years since the start of the investigation.

According to a plea deal, Norman Rosen, an 84-year-old doctor at Rosen-Hoffberg Rehabilitation and Pain Management, pleaded guilty to running a "pill mill" out of his offices in Owings Mills and Towson.

Rosen will serve four months of home detention as part of 18 months of probation, followed by three years of supervised release.

According to the guilty plea, patients who visited Rosen-Hoffberg Rehabilitation were often prescribed extremely high doses of oxycodone and other opiates.

Prosecutors said patients would bring in urine that wasn't theirs to pass urine toxicology screens. Some patients overdosed, requiring hospitalization, and others died.

According to Rosen's guilty plea, patients received prescriptions for opiates after testing positive for the use of cocaine, heroin, and other street drugs.

Rosen's partner, Howard Hoffberg, 65, of Reisterstown, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate anti-kickback statutes. Hoffberg ran a scheme where he accepted payments from a pharmaceutical company in exchange for prescribing a fentanyl-based drug.

Hoffberg was sentenced to eight months in federal prison.

Rosen's defense attorney initially sought a 30-day house arrest while the federal prosecutors argued for six months of home confinement.

According to the judge, a fine was not imposed because Rosen would be unable to pay it or any ordered restitution for the victims.