CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Logan County doctor now faces the loss of his medical license and clinic, as well as up to 50 years in prison, after being found guilty of improperly prescribing drugs.

A federal jury found Brian McDevitt guilty of two counts of unlawfully distributing hydrocodone and two counts of unlawfully distributing Xanax, following a four-day trial. With the verdict, the jury determined he wrote prescriptions for the drugs without a legitimate medical purpose. The jury also found him not guilty of 13 other counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances.

In addition to the verdicts, the jury also found that McDevitt should lose his medical license and his ownership of the Chapmanville Medical Center building where he practiced.

This is not McDevitt’s first brush with the law. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to allowing others to use his DEA registration number to distribute diet pills on more than 800 occasions. He was sentenced to a year and a day in that case.  

For that reason, U.S. Attorney Will Thompson called McDevitt “one of the original drug dealers in a lab coat” and said he “put his own greed above the health and well-being of his patients.”

McDevitt will be sentenced May 22.