By Billy Davis

Dr. Robert Corkern said Wednesday that he voluntarily surrendered his license to prescribe narcotics and controlled substances following a prescription abuse investigation that began Monday with a search of his office.

An investigator with Mississippi’s State Medical Licensure Board, joined by local authorities, served a search warrant on a doctor’s office Monday morning.

At Batesville Clinic, authorities “pulled medical files” from Corkern’s office, said a spokesman for the Panola County Narcotics Task Force.

The narcotics task force had received complaints of misuse of prescription drugs for more than a year, agent Bill McGee said after the search concluded.

Responding to the complaints, the task force notified the state license board, which is leading the current investigation, McGee also said.

“I agreed not to prescribe narcotics while the Narcotics Bureau does its investigation,” Corkern said. “Patients had been selling my prescriptions. I did not know that,” he added. 

Corkern was not arrested and has not been charged with a crime, McGee said.

The doctor is still practicing medicine at his office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Wednesdays, according to a notice posted in the clinic.

“I had already taken the steps,” to curtail prescription  abuse, Corkern said. Last week his office had mailed certified letters to about 30 patients stating that he would no longer prescribe narcotics or controlled substances, he said.

Methadone was the drug most abused, Corkern said.

Methadone is used for treatment of opioid dependence and for pain relief.

A reporter accompanied local and state authorities when they entered the clinic at 10:45 Monday and visited Corkern’s office, located on the south wing of the building, at 107 Eureka Street.

“We are here to serve a search warrant,” licensure board investigator Mickey Boyette, positioned in a waiting room, informed Corkern.

The Batesville doctor, looking over his eyeglasses, nodded and smiled at an entourage that included three task force agents, two Miss. Bureau of Narcotics agents, two Batesville police officers, and Otis Griffin, chief deputy with the sheriff’s department.

Corkern and Boyette then moved into the doctor’s personal office behind closed doors. When that discussion concluded, a search began of drawers and cabinets in the labyrinth of offices.

Corkern, meanwhile, continued to see patients.

A reporter also saw Boyette, armed with a stack of patient records, quiz Corkern and a nurse, Bobbie Jean Pounders, about the procedures and medications used to treat patients.

“I guard that with my life,” Pounders told Boyette, referring to a locked drawer where some prescriptions are stored.

“Do you sleep here and guard it at night, Ms. Pounders?” Boyette asked.

The execution of the search warrant amounted to a 2-for-1 deal for the narcotics task force.

Task force members, dressed in jackets and ties, were already present at the Batesville courthouse for the expected trial of Kevin Hines. 

After Hines’ trial ended with a plea and sentencing, the task force departed the courthouse parking lot in their unmarked vehicles, crossed Court Street, then drove into the parking lot of Batesville Clinic.

A reporter who was present for the trial, noticing the assembly of law enforcement officers at the courthouse, followed the entourage to its nearby destination. 

Circuit Judge Andrew C. Baker, who presided over Hines’ plea and sentencing, signed the search warrant from his chambers.

Even though a search warrant was served Monday, Dr. H. Vann Craig, executive director of the licensure board, said Wednesday the state office does not confirm if it is conducting an investigation.

“That information remains confidential until it becomes public,” he said.

Craig also explained, speaking hypothetically about a state investigation, that any results of an investigation are then reviewed by a licensure board. The board’s next meeting is set for May 21, he said.

Craig also volunteered that Corkern is a “valuable member of the Batesville community.”