Tuesday, December 21, 1999
Addicted ex-dentist sentenced
Plea spares prison time
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — A former drug-addicted dentist, Bill Bunce, was close to going to prison Monday for writing fake prescriptions — until the forgiving words of a Lebanon mother spared him.
“I wanted to ask you to impose the maximum sentence,” said the woman whose 17-year-old son was charged for passing the prescriptions for Mr. Bunce. “But we're all fallible human beings, and I want to see him get better.”
That statement prompted a change of heart for Visiting Judge John Crouse, who had notified the Warren County prosecutor and a defense lawyer only moments earlier that Mr. Bunce definitely was going to prison.
Instead, Judge Crouse sentenced Mr. Bunce to five years of probation and ordered him to perform 2,000 hours of community service speaking publicly about the hazards of drug abuse. Mr. Bunce also must pay a $5,000 fine.
The Lebanon woman's appeal for mercy came after emotional pleas from Mr. Bunce's brother and 22-year-old son to spare Mr. Bunce from prison so he could continue drug rehabilitation. Even so, she said her son and Mr. Bunce's 19-year-old secretary, Angela Ward, were victimized by Mr. Bunce.
“Dr. Bunce abused his authority, which has had a tremendous negative impact on our children,” the woman said. The Cincinnati Enquirer is not naming her because her son is a juvenile.
Authorities accused Mr. Bunce of using the teen and his girlfriend, Ms. Ward, to pass the fake prescriptions at local pharmacies. Mr. Bunce became addicted to the painkillers after a knee injury.
John Burke, director of the Warren County Drug Task Force, said Mr. Bunce offered the pair prescription drugs in return.
Ms. Ward faces up to a year in prison when she is sentenced Jan. 12 on one count of illegal processing of a drug document. The juvenile was arraigned Monday on a delinquency charge in Warren County Juvenile Court.
Mr. Bunce pleaded guilty in November to two counts of illegal processing of drug documents, and one count each of trafficking in drugs and attempted corruption of another with drugs.
Mr. Bunce, now in treatment at Shepherd Hill Rehab Center in Newark, Ohio, voluntarily gave up his license to practice dentistry and was stripped of a federal license to dispense drugs.
He also was forced to sell his Lebanon dental practice and turn over a 1999 Volkswagen to the drug task force, prosecutors said.
On the verge of tears, Mr. Bunce told Judge Crouse how his addiction had destroyed his life and how he wanted to make amends.
“I cannot believe the things I've done, the people I've hurt and the major damage done to my life,” Mr. Bunce said.
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