Former Physician Posed As Dead Patient To Score Drugs

A former Las Vegas physician has been accused of posing as a dead patient for over two years in order to pick up controlled substances that included painkillers and anti-depressants.

Dr. Kent Swaine, whose license to practice medicine was suspended by the medical board, was arrested last Wednesday and charged with obtaining fraudulently controlled substances. He had been writing prescriptions under the name of Alexander Hyt, a patient who died of cancer in August 2011 and posing as him at pharmacies in order to take home the drugs.

His scheme ultimately ended when a pharmacy complained to the medical board last December and his license was suspended the following month. The criminal complaint also alleged that Swaine admitted treating patients while he was high.

Swaine was licensed to practice medicine in Nevada in July 2001, but had his license revoked in October 2008 due to his drug use. He was reinstated in June 2011 on the condition that he not prescribe substances for himself or his family and personally refrained from using drugs. However, he reportedly tested positive last January for "amphetamines, benzodiazepine and opiates.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach ordered that Swaine be released on his own recognizance as he faced the charges.