Khazan: In 2016, Jeff tried to broadcast his world even more widely. Were going to take the worst of the worst. In an attempt to understand how Young got away with so much for so long, Ive spent more than a year tracking his story, reading court documents, and examining his extensive digital footprint. Eventually Shirley Pickering, the nursing-board investigator who was looking into the allegations against Young, also grew terrified of him. Of course other doctors dont write as many prescriptions, the implication seemed to be. Once his colleagues were out of the business, Young began crafting a persona based around rock music and hard living. Otherwise, fledgling practices, in particular, risk losing patients. Some speculated that it could have been drugs, alcohol, the prospect of fame, a divorce from his second wife the year after PreventaGenix launched, or a combination of all of them. Its light and upbeat.). You can all suck my d***. [Chuckles.] The Daily Beast Automated News Feed No Censorship, Just News. Additional music by Nelson Bandela (04 HIDDEN FORCES and Auddi Sun 01 131). I asked to speak with him for this story, but because of a gag order on the case, his lawyer declined interviews with me. Know his wife, age, net worth, family, Though Young at first just seemed to go along with the project, he grew more invested after the first visit, the cameraman told me. Not that half of the, you know powers that be are on some sort of whatever. (The music opens up into a technologic rainforest as synthesizers mimic birdsong.). She doesnt think Young was the one who drugged her, but she believes nevertheless that she was drugged. Several others dismissed the notion that Young could be sexually coercive. Young: (Serious, and a little angry.) One employee recalled him sometimes being too drunk to see patients. Jackson, a city of about 70,000 people, looks like almost any midsize patch of America that sprang up sometime after the Pilgrims but before Microsoft. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information. (The music changes tone, becoming a little more up-tempo and treble-heavy.). The agents seized about 350 of Youngs patient charts and every computer in the office, according to Gutgsell, the former office manager, and the notice of seizure states that about 10,000 individual doses of hydrocodone were also taken. She was referred to Jeff by one of her friends. Over that time, his online following grew. Early in the epidemic, Purdue gave doctors OxyContin fishing hats and swing-music CDs to encourage them to prescribe more of the drug. Thats the big joke. Not all of them were into the whole edgy hard-rock thing at first. They thought I was basically lazy and just wanted to have pain pills, just for whatever reason. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Fact-check by Michelle Ciarrocca and Jack Segelstein. There were reports of after-hours partiespossibly of Jeff having sex with his patients. Im too good for you because I got this money, or whatever. Former employees speculated that he met the women in bars. Khazan: Do you remember what kind of music was playing? But the more time I spent thinking about it, the more I started to realize that Jeff has a point. Phillips, Youngs best friend, would often stop by the clinic to hang out and drink, according to former employees. Thats okay. Khazan: So, like, that doctor-patient interaction and how the opioids actually got prescribed. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. A year later, the Tennessee nursing board suspended his ability to prescribe most opioids and other controlled substances for two years, saying that he had prescribed them irresponsibly. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. A few months into their new venture, Reitz and Young were supposed to meet to discuss the running of the clinic. And that was not the case at all. Kevin: And were going to ask our friendsour warriors out thereto put these folks in their place, because, you know, the Golden Rule. The department suggested that he surrender his license in order to resolve the matter quickly, but according to a report from The Tennessean and The Jackson Sun, a defiant Young rejected that offer. Longoria: And one of those worst of the worst providers stood out from the others. His wife also loves animals and works in the same clinic. Heres what I can tell you. Theres this moment in one of the videos that I keep thinking about: Young: (Over more pool filtration.) After the raid, Young spent the night in jail on an outstanding warrant, and PreventaGenix closed soon after. I expected to hear lots of horror stories of abuse and mistreatment. Longoria: Olga Khazan is a staff writer at The Atlantic whos been covering the opioid epidemic for the last seven years. She appreciated that he asked about her grandkids. Tanya Ballard: I think people are Just didnt like Jeff. I asked to speak with him for this story, but because of a gag order on the case, his lawyer declined interviews with me. 13.6k members in the AutoNewspaper community. Hes prescribing drugs that people want, another man added. A woman Ill call Stephanie developed a friendship with Young a few years ago when she was regularly seeing him for swelling in her throat. Still, the citys southernness peeks through. They didnt have tattoos. I mean, you could just kind of tell you could trust him. You may not like my tattoos. Copyright 2021 The Atlantic and New York Public Radio. In July 2016, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began looking into allegations that Young was overprescribing opioids. Khazan: Thirty-one doctors and seven other nurse practitioners were busted in that same Justice Department sweep that caught Jeff. With a heavy Mercy me, Phillips produces a pair of womens panties from a bag. In February 2016, he texted one of his opioid patients, a police officer named Jay Green. Jeffrey Young wanted to give you a real look inside his clinic. Every time. Everybody pay fucking attention worldwide because Im about to save this motherfuckers lifelive on Periscope broadcast! By the end of this hearing, you will be asking what on Earth took the medical board so long, Pennebaker, the prosecutor, said in court. a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. This striking 6ft 3in person embodies kanji tattoos on his biceps, and the effortlessly cool personality will describe how one sees him. (Young has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Calles: You could just tell by the demeanor that that was there. The opioid epidemicwhich appears to only be getting worsehas made clear that wherever pain exists in America, grifters will follow. Young appeared to operate more subtly. His indictment implicated him and two of his former supervising physicians, Alexander Alperovich and Andrew Rudin, and alleged that Youngs motives in prescribing controlled substances to his patients were often to obtain money, notoriety, and sexual favors. Alperovich and Rudin, the indictment claims, accepted money derived from the proceeds of the conspiracy in exchange for their purported supervision. (Both have pleaded not guilty. Lax regulations played a role. As the nursing boards investigation of Young inched along, another agency launched its own probe into the Rock Doc. I am very nervous about it, she replied. Fullington, who was also let go, told me she got a threatening call from Young. So, no, I cant say that. Throughout Jackson, he had created for himself a reputation as a rock-and-roll renegade, happily showing off his piercings, tattoos, and goatee. The whole thing was Very Online. The clinic sat on a quiet road crammed with other medical practicesa sleep doctor, a dentist, a nephrologist, an orthodontisteach in its own brick McMansion. So hes a little out there. (A moment of narrative silence. Jackson nurse practitioner Jeffrey Young will await his opioid trafficking trial in jail, an appeals court decided Thursday. Jacksons cheeriness, though, is at odds with the populations somewhat grim physical health. Multiple surveys show that people tend to trust health-care workers more than they trust many other professionals, including police officers and clergy members. He wasnt in pain. To a different patient, he wrote, Come fuck me at my office right now., It is not illegal for doctors to have sex with their patients, though its considered unethical. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. Khazan: And some of what she saw really weirded her out. Ill meet you there. Rachel Fullington, an early employee of Youngs, told me Young wanted the clinics atmosphere to be loose and fun, while the others wanted it to be more buttoned-up. It fit neatly, at least, into a story I was already really familiar with: It was the greedy provider who was allegedly taking advantage of his patients. But Young was eager to let the world know that he was no typical nurse practitioner. I am sick of people only judging you by what you do in your personal life, one woman wrote on his Facebook page in September 2016, when Young was charged with assault after a woman claimed that he had screamed at her in the parking lot of his office. ), Khazan: So doctors were kind of like, Okay.. Naylor: Thats a really hard question for me to answer, because I believeour whole family believesthat he saved my husbands life. Kevin: Jeff and I are full of antics. One former employee told me its not clear whether Young was exchanging prescriptions for sex or just giving his many girlfriends the medications they asked for. I had a lot of Why on earth? questions, the Atlantic reporter Olga Khazan says. They painted a picture of the kind of medical office where you might actually want to hang out. Calles: Yes. (Lo-fi synthesizer music plays up. Young: Even get all gussied up for tonight. She once saw someone running across her yard into the woods. M.Y. Then and over the ensuing months, I spoke with dozens of Youngs friends, enemies, alleged victims, and former co-workers. Additional audio from Purdue Pharma, The Rock Doc TV Show, @JY2RocDoc, and Bat Pig Pictures. It was just rocked out. Reitz says he and his girlfriend came up with the unwieldy namea futuristic combination of prevent and genetics. Actually very nice, yeah. Scott Deberry: But after a while, when you read stuff, how many people could be wrong? But when he suggested it the way he did, I took it seriously. One former patient who had a falling-out with Young told me he or someone associated with him attacked her on the internet forum Topix, calling her a whore and a drunk. She said her home address and photos of her adult daughters were posted on the site, along with rape threats directed at her daughters. Dr. Jeff is married to Petra Mickova Petra though she is his second wife. The patients of the nurse practitioner and aspiring reality star Jeffrey Young say he helped them like nobody else could. The resulting videos are typical scenes from a medical practicepeople donning gloves, waiting in chairsspliced together over a heavy-metal soundtrack. Most of these doctors werent like Jeff. (A snare hit plays, and the music changes tone again. And you can kind of look at it like locker-room talk . Naylor: They would look at me and say [Dismissively. Khazan: I was wondering if your ex-husband still supports Jeff or thinks he was a good medical provider. Khazan: When Jeffs indictment became public, LeAnnlike many of his former patientswas suspicious at first. He was like, No, we do Botox and stuff for people, and dah-dah-dah-dah. On it, they found evidence of Young having sex with many different women, one of whom appeared to be motionless and had her eyes closed, a DEA agent testified later. They dont want to touch you unless they have to touch you. Our team also includes Gabrielle Berbey, Emily Botein, Matt Collette, Tracie Hunte, and me, Natalia Ramirez. As so often happens with irresponsible medical providers, Youngs popularity in the communityalong with an indifferent, slow-moving bureaucracyallowed him to operate for half a decade despite initial warning signs and then multiple arrests and investigations. In May 2019, shortly after Young was indicted, I traveled to Jackson to try to understand the place that gave rise to the Rock Doc. His case offers a unique look at the opioid crisis. (Patel did not respond to requests for comment.) Less than half answered. Without doing a physical exam, Young diagnosed MY with chronic lower-back pain and anxiety, the letter details. A transcript of this episode is presented below: (Abruptly, rock music begins to play, and then, just as quickly, it ends with a light echo.). On my trip, I strolled by a glass case near the federal courthouse that held a large Bible opened to the Gospel of John. 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