Tennessee doctor pleads guilty to drug distribution resulting in death

A Tennessee physician could spend the next 20 years in federal prison after he illegally prescribed hydrocodone to a patient resulting in death. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Tennessee says, 63-year-old Thomas K. Ballard III owned and operated the Ballard Clinic where he issued illegal prescriptions without any medical purpose. Investigators say he also engaged in sexual conduct with female patients that were abusing prescription drugs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Ballard’s treatment records also acknowledged a pattern of drug abuse in the women who died after overdosing on hydrocodone, which he prescribed.