Charges dropped against man accused of running pill mill in Winter Garden

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. — Charges against the owner of a Winter Garden pain clinic who is also accused of running a pill mill have been tossed.

Channel 9 was there in May when Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Vincent Goodwin and charged him with racketeering.

Goodwin said he was not running a pill mill where at his pain care clinic, which used to sit on Dillard Street.

But MBI agents said he made a lot of money off illegal prescriptions and the case was dropped only because the key witness changed her story.

Goodwin's medical director, Dr. Rica Bogdany, accused Goodwin of pressuring her to write oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine prescriptions for 10,000 pills for 24 patients in two days when she was in the hospital unable to examine patients, MBI officials said.

But court records show that in court in January she claimed she was in the hospital with delirium and an altered mental status.

The state has dropped the case, telling Channel 9 the reason is "inconsistent testimony of a crucial witness."

Goodwin told WFTV on Thursday that he did nothing wrong.

"I never did nothing. That's the only thing I said. I never did anything," he said.

Goodwin's attorney, Jerry Girley, said Goodwin was caught up in the state attorney general's emphasis to shut down pill mills.

"What they did here was reckless," he said.

MBI's director dismisses that and told Channel 9 that Bogdany wasn't charged because she cooperated. Now that she's changed her story, MBI will review her new statements and reevaluate.

State records show Bogdany now runs Lifetime Ways clinic in Clermont.

MBI insists crimes were committed in the case and that prescriptions for powerful painkillers were written without proper medical examinations of the clinic's patients. Officials said the new evidence could result in more charges being filed with the state attorney's office.

WFTV