Missouri is an outstanding state for pharmacist practice. Its substantial population expresses consistent healthcare needs, provided by a comprehensive healthcare system and paid for through a strong economy. The last thing you need or want to face is a criminal investigation, arrest, or conviction. Issues with the criminal justice system can lead to Missouri Pharmacy Board license disciplinary charges, leading to license suspension or revocation. You also need your Missouri pharmacy license to practice as a pharmacist in the state. If you face criminal investigation, arrest, charge, or conviction, you can do no better than to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to preserve and protect your Missouri Pharmacy Board license. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced license defense representation.
Missouri Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
Missouri pharmacists face criminal issues with roughly the same frequency and to approximately the same degree as pharmacists in other states. Missouri pharmacists are neither more nor less prone to criminal issues. Missouri pharmacists commit drunk driving, criminal assault, and other common crimes like other Missouri residents, with those common crimes potentially triggering license discipline. Pharmacists also commit practice-related crimes, adding to their risk of license discipline. Pharmacists have suffered notorious felony convictions for such practice-related wrongs as causing a meningitis outbreak that resulted in a dozen deaths due to untested and infected pharmaceuticals, Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurer fraud, drug distribution, and diverting opioid prescriptions, among other pharmacy crimes. You are hardly alone in facing licensing issues relating to alleged crime. Let our attorneys help you face, defend, and defeat your licensing issues.
Missouri Pharmacist Licensure Authority
The Missouri Pharmacy Board has the state legislature’s authority to issue, refuse to issue, and revoke pharmacist licenses. Missouri Statutes Section 338.010 requires that every individual intending to practice pharmacy within the state must hold a Pharmacy Board license: “No person shall engage in the practice of pharmacy unless he or she is licensed under the provisions of this chapter.” Section 338.195 makes it a Class D felony crime to practice without a license. Missouri punishes Class D felonies with imprisonment for up to seven years and a $10,000 fine. You must not practice as a pharmacist in Missouri if you lose your license due to a criminal investigation, arrest, charge, or conviction. Let us help you defend and defeat any such disciplinary charges.
Missouri Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
You must continue to meet the requirements for a Missouri Pharmacy Board license to hold and renew your pharmacy license. Missouri Statutes Section 338.030 sets forth the qualifications for a pharmacist license. In addition to being of lawful age, a graduate of an approved pharmacy education program, and having the requisite year of supervised pharmacy practice, applicants must show their good moral character for pharmacy practice. Criminal convictions may indicate to the Pharmacy Board that you do not possess the required good moral character. If you face criminal investigation, arrest, charge, or conviction, let us help you respond to Missouri Pharmacy Board inquiries and investigations of the grounds for criminal issues and whether they constitute a lack of good moral character.
Missouri Pharmacist License Discipline
Missouri Statutes Section 338.055 authorizes the Missouri Pharmacy Board to discipline licensees who commit one of the statute’s enumerated grounds for discipline. Section 338.055’s grounds for discipline include criminal conviction by plea or trial for any of the following three classes of offenses including (1) “any offense reasonably related to the qualifications, functions or duties of” pharmacists; (2) “any offense an essential element of which is fraud, dishonesty or an act of violence”; or (3) “any offense involving moral turpitude….” Other enumerated grounds for discipline include misconduct that may also be criminal, such as violation of the drug laws, personal use of controlled substances without a prescription, fraud, and bribery.
Missouri Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Discipline on the above grounds, though, is discretionary with the Missouri Pharmacy Board and not mandatory. Section 338.055 only states that the Board may, not must, pursue disciplinary charges on the enumerated grounds. The Pharmacy Board’s discretion to pursue discipline over your criminal issues gives our attorneys the opportunity to make a case for forgoing disciplinary charges or mitigating any sanctions if the Board pursues charges and finds grounds for discipline. Let us help you show the Board that your discipline is unwarranted and unnecessary to carry out the Board’s public protection mission, on some of the grounds discussed below.
Differences Between Arrest and Conviction
The Missouri Pharmacy Board may determine whether to pursue disciplinary charges relating to your criminal issues and decide whether to impose any sanction if it does bring disciplinary charges, based on whether your criminal issues involve investigation, arrest, charge, or conviction. See below how our attorneys may be able to defend your license against disciplinary charges, depending on how far your criminal issues have progressed through these four stages.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Criminal Investigation
Criminal investigation may be the least likely criminal issue to trigger Missouri Pharmacy Board disciplinary charges and sanctions. Your criminal investigation may go nowhere because you did not commit any crime. Police need nothing more than suspicious activity to investigate. Investigation often shows that the suspicions were misplaced. On the other hand, some criminal investigations pursue credible reports of serious misconduct. An anonymous tip, for instance, that you have diverted controlled substances for personal use or sale, may trigger both a police criminal investigation and a Pharmacy Board disciplinary investigation. Let us help you show the Pharmacy Board that you committed no crime or disciplinary offense and that any suspicions were groundless.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Criminal Arrest
Criminal arrests would generally trigger more concern on the Missouri Pharmacy Board’s part than a criminal investigation. Police require probable cause for an arrest of a crime committed in their presence or a warrant based on probable cause for an arrest committed outside their presence. Probable cause generally requires specific observation of conduct leaving a reasonable inference that the arrestee may have committed the crime for which police made the arrest. Your colleague’s report that you diverted controlled substances for personal use could be probable cause sufficient for an arrest and could likewise trigger Pharmacy Board disciplinary charges. In that example, our attorneys may be able to show that your colleague’s observations were mistaken and your actions were innocent.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Criminal Charge
A criminal charge after your arrest would trigger even greater Missouri Pharmacy Board concerns over license discipline. Prosecutors generally file criminal charges only when they have admissible evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the charged crime. That evidence would raise greater concern with Pharmacy Board officials that you committed a disciplinary offense. We may be able to show, to the contrary, that the prosecutor’s witnesses lack foundation for their testimony or lack credibility, that you have more substantial exonerating evidence, or that you have a strong case in mitigation of any disciplinary offense.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Criminal Conviction
A criminal conviction following your charge would raise the greatest concern on the Missouri Pharmacy Board’s part that you committed a license disciplinary offense. Conviction requires either a guilty or no contest plea admitting responsibility for the charged crime or a judge or jury finding that the evidence establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The Pharmacy Board could use the conviction to establish the disciplinary offense, without even relying on the underlying evidence. We may nonetheless be able to show that your criminal conviction was reversed, pardoned, or expunged, or that your conviction was not for a disqualifying offense such as one related to the practice of pharmacy.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
The Missouri Pharmacy Board will also consider the specific crime for which you face investigation, arrest, charge, or conviction. Consider below how we may be able to defend your license disciplinary charges for each of the crime categories that Missouri Statutes Section 338.055 list as grounds for license discipline.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Crimes Relating to Pharmacy
Section 338.055 includes as a first criminal conviction ground for discipline, “any offense reasonably related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of pharmacists. Pharmacy practice crimes may include criminal fraud of Medicare or private insurers, customer identity theft, illegal drug dispensing, or diversion of drugs. While the Missouri Pharmacy Board would likely impose severe discipline for these offenses, we may be able to show that your conviction was reversed, pardoned, or expunged, you were not convicted of a pharmacy practice-related offense, or you have rehabilitated your character since having committed the offense.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Violent Crimes
Section 338.055 includes violent crime, such as homicide, assault, or domestic violence, as another ground for license discipline. The Missouri Pharmacy Board may discipline a pharmacist’s license for a violent crime conviction to protect customers and the public from a pharmacist who has a propensity for violence. We may be able to show to the contrary that you did not suffer a conviction for a crime of violence, your conviction was reversed, pardoned, or expunged, or your conviction, although for a violent crime, presents no risk to customers or the public because of the extraordinary cause or context for your violent outburst, such as a heat of passion incident involving a close family member.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Crimes of Dishonesty
Section 338.055 also includes crimes of fraud or dishonesty, like theft, embezzlement, or criminal fraud, as grounds for license discipline. The Missouri Pharmacy Board would consider discipline for crimes of fraud or dishonesty because pharmacists have access to customer identity, insurance, and account information, to money, and to valuable narcotic drugs, which a pharmacist with a propensity for fraud or dishonesty might divert, steal, or otherwise misuse for illicit gain. We may be able to defend these license disciplinary charges by showing that you did not commit a crime of fraud or dishonesty, your conviction was reversed, pardoned, or expunged, your fraud or dishonesty created no risk to patients or the public of any financial or other harm, or you have sufficiently rehabilitated your character for fraud or dishonesty.
License Discipline Effect of Missouri Crimes of Moral Turpitude
Section 338.055 also includes crimes of moral turpitude, like public lewdness, corruption of a minor, or solicitation to prostitution, as grounds for license discipline. The Missouri Pharmacy Board may discipline on these grounds out of concern that the pharmacist might corrupt a vulnerable customer. We may be able to show that you did not commit a moral turpitude crime, your moral turpitude would create no risk to any customer, your conviction was reversed, expunged, or pardoned, or you have sufficiently rehabilitated your morally corrupt character.
Missouri Pharmacist’s Duty to Report Criminal Issues
Pharmacists suffering conviction may have a duty to report their criminal conviction to the Missouri Pharmacy Board. Generally, you would not owe any duty to report a criminal investigation, arrest, or charge because none of those preliminary stages of a criminal proceeding confirms that you have committed a disciplinary offense. On the other hand, when you attempt to renew your license, the Missouri Pharmacy Board’s application form and process may well require you to answer questions regarding criminal convictions or other changes in your qualifying and disqualifying circumstances since your last renewal or initial licensure. You must answer inquiries truthfully and without misleading omission, or you could face credential fraud disciplinary charges. Let us help you make the correct disclosure at the right time and in the right context to reduce your likelihood of license discipline.
Missouri Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
Missouri Statutes Section 338.065 requires the Missouri Pharmacy Board to hold a hearing before imposing license discipline based on a criminal conviction or related grounds. We can invoke your hearing rights to raise the above defenses and other available defenses, while presenting your defense evidence and challenging the Board’s evidence. We can also take appeals from your license discipline if you have already lost your hearing.
Premier Missouri Pharmacist License Defense
If you are a pharmacist licensed for practice in Missouri and face criminal investigation, arrest, charge, or conviction, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your license defense. We have helped hundreds of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in Missouri and nationwide successfully resolve licensing issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified attorney representation.