Nurse practitioner Larry Goisse was two men, his lawyer said.
Drug-free Larry was the responsible medical professional who owned two psychiatric care practices in East Liberty and Wilkins.
Then there was the other Larry, the one hooked on methamphetamines, whose life, in his own words, “goes to hell” when he’s not in recovery.
The “watershed” moment in his life came on Feb. 2, 2019, attorney Thomas Livingston said, when federal agents arrested him for writing Adderall prescriptions while his license was suspended and hauled him into the U.S. courthouse.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer sent Goisse, 38, of Mount Washington, to prison for two years for drug diversion and health care fraud in connection to those illegal prescriptions.
He had faced a range of 33 to 41 months, but Livingston asked for leniency based in part on what he described as Goisse’s battle with addiction and mental illness, his pro bono work for patients and his ongoing rehabilitation.
During the case, in fact, a magistrate judge allowed him to seek meth treatment as an in-patient at a West Virginia addiction facility.
The U.S. attorney’s office wanted the 33 to 41 months. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar, who heads a federal unit that pursues crooked doctors in this district, said Goisse used his DEA registration to write prescriptions for no medical purpose. He said Goisse also “commandeered the DEA registration of co-workers” to write scripts for several months.
“In so doing,” Cessar said, “he corruptly bypassed a heavily regulated system that was designed and intended to prevent the very abuse he committed.”
Goisse owned and operated Prime Psychiatric Care locations. His professional life came undone in December 2017 when police in West View found him passed out behind the wheel of his running car. He had a pipe in his pants with a burnt end and a bag of meth.
He pleaded no contest to possession of a controlled substance and driving under suspension, after which the state yanked his license in 2018.
But he kept writing scripts anyway. Sometimes even his mother, who worked in his office, called them in. Employees at his practice said they saw him prescribing drugs illegally. Several quit in protest and alerted the DEA about what Goisse was doing.
That led to his federal case. Goisse admitted at his guilty plea last year that in September and October of 2018, he continued to prescribe Adderall despite the suspension. He also admitted that he submitted claims to Medicare for office visits under a co-worker’s license.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Fischer ordered Goisse to be on probation for three years when he gets out.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
