FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — A Fayette County doctor who overprescribed medications and, in some cases, traded prescription drugs for sexual favors from female patients will spend between three and 35 years behind bars.
Dr. Oscar Gosien, 73, asked for mercy during his sentencing hearing Thursday morning in Fayette County Circuit Court. In addition to the prison time, he has lost his licenses to practice medicine and prescribe drugs.
Gosien was arrested at his Oak Hill office in December 2012 and entered a Kennedy plea to three counts of constructive delivery of a controlled substance in May of this year.
A Kennedy plea is a guilty plea in which a defendant does not admit guilt, but admits the prosecution’s evidence would likely be enough for a judge or jury to find that defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
State Police, deputies with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, members of the Central West Virginia Drug Task Force and officers with the Oak Hill Police Department were all part of what’s called an “extensive” investigation focused on Gosien.
At the time of Gosien’s arrest, Fayette County Sheriff Steve Kessler said pills Gosien had prescribed had been linked to several overdose deaths in Fayette County in recent years.