ARLINGTON, Va. — A Virginia doctor has been found guilty and is now facing up to 20 years in prison for illegally distributing opioids for at least a decade.
According to evidence presented at trial, Doctor Kirsten Van Steenberg Ball prescribed over one million oxycodone pills. Ball was a primary care physician operating her own private practice out of her home in Arlington, Virginia.
Her office manager, Candy Marie Calix, conspired with Ball to cover up the drug ring.
“Medication meant to be carefully provided to people in severe pain was instead prescribed excessively – with no regard for patients’ safety or where the pills would end up. For over a decade, Dr. Ball was at the epicenter of a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone via a network of individuals posing as patients who were prescribed over a million pills.” said Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
This is not the first time Ball has been investigated for her excessive prescriptions. The Virginia Department of Health Professions had her investigated in 2014, 2015 and again in 2021.
Court records show that Ball prescribed 50,000 oxycodone pills to Calix alone over the last decade. After the first DHP investigation Ball told her office manager, Calix, to start using a fake name to hide the fact that she was getting the pills from Ball.
In court, the prosecution broke down how Ball was able to get away with this drug scheme for so long. She would have Calix recruit buyers, including her own family members to become pain patients so she could prescribe the oxycodone to them.
Calix would then take the pills prescribed to her family members and sell them. Ball’s clientele included everyone from drug traffickers to drug addicts.
To make sure things didn’t get out, Ball would vet all of her patients. She wouldn’t take any new patient unless an established patient could vouch for them. She did this to avoid being infiltrated by an undercover agent.
However, having been on the DHP’s radar for some time, the FBI stepped in to take matters into its own hands. The agency was able to introduce an undercover agent claiming to be the nephew of an existing patient.
In recorded conversations the undercover revealed to Ball that he was sharing his pills with family members. Ball told him that was “a felony," but she wouldn’t report it. She just kept prescribing him exuberant amounts of oxycodone.
The doctor wasn’t just in it for the money, she allegedly wanted free stuff too. Ball would exchange prescriptions for manual labor around her home and cars. Three of her patients cleaned her home on a bi-weekly basis for years.
On Tuesday, a jury convicted Ball and now she is facing 20 years. Her sentencing is scheduled for February 27, 2024.
As for her co-conspirator Calix, she was sentenced in September and is serving seven years.