NORFOLK — The father of an 18-year-old man who underwent plastic surgery at a Virginia Beach hospital in 2019 testified Monday he thought it was strange when the surgeon insisted he and his wife immediately fill their son’s prescriptions when they arrived at the hospital.
Dr. John Mancoll told the couple he wanted them to get the drugs right away so he could explain how to properly administer them, and show how the pills could be cut in half if only a partial dose was needed, according to the father’s testimony.
Hours later, Mancoll took a break from the procedure and went into the waiting area to tell the parents about a minor complication that came up, and to ask if they’d obtained the Percocet painkillers he’d prescribed, the father said.
When the father handed the pill bottle to the surgeon, Mancoll poured some into his ungloved hand and pointed to a pre-cut line that could be used to divide them. He then closed his hand around the pills and put some — but not all — back in the bottle before putting his hand in his pocket, the father said.
“Was that something that stuck out in your mind?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Gant asked the father. “Absolutely,” he said.
Mancoll, 58, a well-known plastic surgeon in the area, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Norfolk on multiple charges of illegally obtaining and possessing two powerful prescription painkillers: Dilaudid and Percocet.
The three fraud charges he faces are each punishable by up to four years in prison, and the two possession counts carry a maximum penalty of one year apiece. The trial is expected to last several days and Mancoll will testify, according to his lawyers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Butler told jurors during opening statements that Mancoll was addicted to the painkillers and began to pocket patients’ pills because he couldn’t legally obtain them for himself. The doctor also encouraged patients to bring back unused drugs so he could properly dispose of them, but instead kept them for himself, Butler said.
Defense attorney Mario Lorello described his client as a brilliant and caring surgeon who’s been wrongly accused.
Lorello questioned why patients who claim Mancoll stole drugs from them never reported the alleged crimes, and continued to go back for more surgeries and follow-up visits. The defense lawyer also suggested the patients are using the accusations to win legal settlements from the doctor, and former employees conspired against him to get out of no-compete contracts.
“Dr. Mancoll is not an addict. He is not a thief,” Lorello told the jurors. “The evidence will prove that.”
To protect the privacy of Mancoll’s patients and the patient’s families, those witnesses are only being identified in court by their first names or initials. The type of surgeries each patient underwent also is not being disclosed.
The father of the 18-year-old patient, identified in court as Cassidy, was among a handful of witnesses called to testify Monday. He said after he returned home from his son’s surgery, he counted the pills in the bottle Mancoll had handled and noticed there were only 47. The label said there should be 50.
When asked on cross examination by defense attorney Mario Lorello if he reported the alleged theft to the police, the hospital, or anyone else, the father said no because his son didn’t want him to say anything. He also said the family continued to go to Mancoll’s office for follow-up visits and another procedure for their son.
In other testimony Monday, two Virginia Beach police officers testified about an August 2021 traffic stop and search they conducted on Mancoll’s Porsche Panamera sedan after seeing him driving erratically. Officer Rachel Nash testified she found a backpack containing three bottles of pills, including one that had a variety of prescription painkillers in it, which she thought was unusual.
In a bodycam video of the traffic stop played in court, Mancoll can be heard telling the officers he had prescriptions for the pills. He also said he often consolidated various types of pills when he traveled to avoid having to carry multiple bottles.
Jane Harper, [email protected]
