Gynecologist sentenced to year on drug conviction

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore gynecologist has been sentenced to a year in prison for illegally distributing painkillers to his girlfriend and others.

Fifty-eight-year-old John Yacoub was sentenced Monday in federal court in Baltimore.

Yacoub had practiced gynecology and obstetrics in Maryland for 30 years. According to his plea agreement, Yacoub provided prescriptions and pills of Vicodin, oxycodone and morphine to his girlfriend.

Prosecutors say Yacoub asked two others to help him get prescription medication for his girlfriend in exchange for providing them with prescriptions for methadone. Authorities say one of those patients used Medicaid to fill the fraudulent prescriptions.

Yacoub has voluntarily surrendered his medical license.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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