Bay Village 'pill mill' doctor headed to prison

A Bay Village doctor who operated a "pill mill" out of his office will spend a year in prison, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty announced Tuesday.

On June 16, Dr. Lorenzo Lalli entered a plea of guilty to a criminal information that charged him with three counts of Trafficking and two counts of Illegal Processing of Drug Documents.

On Tuesday, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Clancy sentenced Dr. Lalli, 60, to a year in prison.

Judge Clancy also ordered him to forfeit $220,000.

Dr. Lalli earlier had surrendered his medical license and closed his internal medicine practice on Lorain Road in Cleveland.

The charges against Dr. Lalli resulted from a two-year investigation led by the Westshore Enforcement Bureau, the Cleveland Police Department and the Ohio Pharmacy Board.

That investigation developed evidence that Dr. Lalli sold prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other pharmaceuticals.

"Doctors who abuse the privilege to care for their patients and decide simply to sell drugs, instead of treating them, will feel the force and weight of the law," said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney James Gutierrez, who prosecuted the case for the State of Ohio. "They are nothing but drug dealers in suits."