Local Doctor Pleads Guilty To Child Porn, Prescription Drug Charges

ROANOKE, VIRGINIA – A Roanoke County doctor who was indicted in August on charges of prescribing oxycodone outside the usual course of professional practice and receipt of child pornography, pled guilty today in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Roanoke.

Steven Joseph Collins, 51, of Roanoke County, Virginia, pled guilty today to one count of receiving child pornography and two counts of dispensing oxycodone by illegal prescribing. At sentencing, Collins faces a period of incarceration between a mandatory five years and twenty years.

According to evidence presented at today’s hearing by Assistant United States Attorney Jennie L.M. Waering, between July 2010 and July 2013, Collins received digital video and image files of a minor who had not obtained 12 years of age, engaged in sexual activity. This sexual activity included prepubescent children engaging in oral sex with adult males.

In addition, Collins admitted that on separate dates in January 2014 and April 2014, in his role as a medical doctor, authorized controlled substance prescription orders for oxycodone to be issued outside the usual course of professional practice. In one instance, he wrote a prescription for oxycodone in the name of the husband of a patient to avoid having too many prescriptions in the patient’s name. The husband was not, and had never been, a patient.

The investigation of the case was conducted by the Tactical Diversion Squad (TDS) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Homeland Security. The local TDS is comprised of law enforcement officers from the Virginia State Police (VSP), Roanoke County Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and DEA. Assistant United States Attorney Jennie Waering is prosecuting the case for the United States.