Sign up for one of our email newsletters.
Updated 35 minutes ago
A former Greensburg doctor who is accused in a sex-for-drugs scheme involving a 15-year-old girl will be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.
Robert R. Franzino, 61, was arrested by state authorities in March on charges he set up a sexual encounter with the teen. Federal prosecutors took over the case and charged him with enticing the girl into an underage sexual relationship, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
Defense attorney Stanton Levenson says Franzino agreed to plead guilty to the lesser related charge in November to avoid a potentially longer sentence.
Franzino faces a likely sentence of 6 1⁄2 years in federal prison. Prosecutors and his attorney have agreed on the punishment, but a federal judge must still approve that when he is sentenced.
Franzino is accused of using messages sent via social media to offer the girl drugs and cash for sex between Sept. 9, 2015, and March 13.
A former emergency room physician, he pleaded guilty in 2002 to insurance fraud and violating state drug laws after he was charged with prescribing painkillers to four women in the hopes of having sex with them when he worked as a physician at Westmoreland Excela Hospital in Greensburg in 1999, according to court records.
He was sentenced to 10 years of probation and prohibited from practicing medicine in Pennsylvania until December 2005. Records show the state board of medicine revoked his license in November 2005.
State records indicate that Franzino never attempted to reactivate his medical license. Since his license revocation, he has worked as a consultant in medical malpractice cases, authorities said.
The Associated Press contributed.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
