ROANOKE PHYSICIAN IS CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY PRESCRIBING PAINKILLERS

Affidavit: Doctor kept separate drug records

Court documents say Dr. Cecil Byron Knox kept notes on patients' drug
abuse out of patients' medical files.

The Roanoke doctor facing charges for prescribing narcotics for no
legitimate medical purpose kept incriminating information out of his
patients' medical files after his office was searched by federal
authorities last summer, a federal agent has said in court documents
unsealed Monday.

Dr. Cecil Byron Knox kept notes detailing one of his patients' drug
abuse and the arrest of another of his patients for robbing the
Williamson Road Pharmacy separate from the patients' medical files,
according to an affidavit filed by special agent Donald Canestraro of
the Drug Enforcement Administration in Roanoke.

The notes were found in other parts of Knox's office, Southwest
Virginia Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, on Second Street in
Roanoke, according to the affidavit. Federal agents searched Knox's
office for the second time Feb. 1 and arrested him that day along with
several of his employees.

Knox, 52, is the fifth doctor in Southwest Virginia to be charged for
illegally prescribing painkillers such as OxyContin.

Knox, along with several of his employees, is facing federal charges
for illegally prescribing narcotics that led to the death or serious
bodily injury of 10 of his patients. He has also been indicted for
health care fraud, for taking kickback money for patient referrals,
and other related offenses.

Federal agents also compared prescriptions with Knox's signature that
were coming into local pharmacies and found the names of some of the
recipients did not match the names on Knox's official patient list,
according to the affidavit.

Confidential informants told federal authorities that Knox would sign
blank prescription forms and allow his employees to fill out the
narcotic information, according to the affidavit.