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TUSCOLA COUNTY, MI — A Saginaw-area doctor who also had offices in Caro and Mount Pleasant was arraigned on a seven-count warrant in Tuscola County on Thursday, Dec. 29.
Dr. Joseph Edwin Oesterling, 60, was charged with continuing a criminal enterprise, the most serious of his charges, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, five counts of delivery of a Schedule II controlled substance and one count of maintaining a drug house, according to his lawyer, Alan Crawford.
Oesterling, a urologist, was arraigned via video conference as he was in custody during his arraignment.
Tuscola County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Reene said that Oesterling was arrested the night before at one of his clinics.
Though Crawford said his team is working to bond Oesterling out of jail, he called his arrest an attempt by the prosecution to “embarrass and shame” his client.
“They were supposed to contact me when they got a warrant but they didn’t,” Crawford said. “They did not contact me until Tuesday.”
An arrest warrant was authorized by Reene’s office on Dec. 22.
During a break from the arraignment, Oesterling told Crawford that he wasn’t practicing medicine and that one of his employees had been prescribing medicine in agreement with another doctor out of his office.
But Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Eric Wanink said the prescriptions were written using Oesterling’s DEA information.
While Crawford argued for a personal recognizance bond, Wanink asked the judge to set bond at $750,000 with no 10 percent, arguing that Oesterling has plenty of assets including owning 51 percent of the Birch Run Expo Center and “millions of dollars” in John Deere equipment.
Magistrate Joseph Van Auken set bond at $100,000 cash/surety.
Oesterling also must turn in his passport and have no contact with cooperating witness Laura Hintz, who works at one of his clinics, Crawford said.
The investigation
Oesterling’s arrest comes after a seven-month investigation that was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad of Detroit and the Thumb Narcotics Unit into alleged overprescribing practices by Oesterling through his clinics in Caro, Saginaw and Mount Pleasant.
Oesterling has a clinic at 1740 Midland Road in Saginaw Township and Caro Medical Group, 206 Montague in Caro. There was no address listed online for a Mount Pleasant office.
According to the Tuscola County Advertiser, Oesterling had past legal trouble, including “a 1997 case involving expense-account fraud that cost him his job at U-M (through resignation) and a separate case from 2005 involving alleged misconduct charges.”
On Oct. 25, law enforcement executed several search warrants at multiple locations, including clinics and residences related to Oesterling and his practice.
At that time, police seized multiple electronic records, controlled substances and financial records, Reene said.
On Dec. 21, the Tuscola County Prosecutor’s Office also instituted a civil forfeiture proceeding, via summons and complaint, concerning multiple items of personal and real property which were previously seized pursuant to court order on Oct. 25, according to Reene.
Oesterling is being represented by Saginaw attorney Victor Mastromarco Jr. on the forfeiture matter.
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