Nurse Pleads Guilty to Involvement in Pill Mill That Brought Down Two Doctors

A nurse practitioner has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for her role in the operation of a massive pill mill, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama. Following years as an operating room nurse, Bridgette Parker earned her master’s degree in nursing and was hired as a nurse practitioner by Drs. Xiulu Ruan and John Patrick Couch, co-owners of Physicians Pain Specialists of Alabama. A jury convicted both physicians on numerous federal counts on March 8 following a seven-week trial in what prosecutors said was the first time in U.S...