MINGO DOCTOR ARRAIGNED IN DRUG CASE

A suspended Mingo County doctor will stand trial Jan. 8 on 18 charges
alleging he illegally dispensed OxyContin, a federal magistrate ruled
Thursday.

U.S. Magistrate Mary Stanley arraigned Dr. Armando M. Acosta, who was
arrested on federal charges earlier this fall. The Nov. 18 indictment
against Acosta alleges he provided the powerful, often-abused
painkiller to two unidentified people between April and July of last
year.

Stanley said she planned to keep the Jan. 8 trial date after Acosta,
54, said he was looking for new lawyers to defend him. He was then
returned to the South Central Regional Jail, where he has been held
without bail.

Prosecutors have presented evidence alleging that Acosta's Delbarton
practice routinely provided OxyContin to patients who did not need
it. Investigators say they found scores of blank prescription slips
there that already bore Acosta's signature.

State charges, meanwhile, allege Acosta sexually assaulted an
incapacitated female patient six times over the past year.
Prosecutors believe Acosta demanded sex from patients after hooking
them on OxyContin, exchanging favors for prescriptions.

At a previous hearing, Stanley sealed three of a number of photos
that depict Acosta having sex with at least a dozen women in his
office. The photos were apparently taken with a camera installed high
in one corner of the office.

Acosta had been on probation since 1997 with the state Board of
Medicine, which suspended his license after his arrest as part of an
agreed order. The board has heard a string of ethics allegations
against the Cuban-born family doctor, who began practicing in West
Virginia in 1983.