Former doctor with Wagoner Medical Center enters guilty plea

HOWARD COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – A former doctor from Howard County has entered a plea agreement in the case involving overprescribing of controlled substances.

According to court documents, Dr. William Terpstra is pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit dealing in a narcotic drug and dealing in a narcotic drug. The agreement is pending approval from the court.

Terpstra was originally charged with 24 counts in a case linking more than two dozen deaths to the Wagoner Medical Centers in Burlington and Kokomo. Investigators say Dr. Terpstra wrote more than 10,000 prescriptions for controlled substances in 2012 alone.

The plea deal calls for all 15 years of Terpstra’s sentence to be suspended. He must complete 600 hours of community service as a condition of his probation. His prescriptive license has been revoked, but he will be entitled to reactivate his medical license.

Owner Dr. Don Wagoner pleaded guilty last year to seven felonies including dealing a narcotic. A former physician’s assistant, 63-year-old Gary Hartman, with the center in Burlington pleaded guilty last week to aiding, inducing or causing dealing in a narcotic drug.