Macon-area doctor accused by feds of illegally dispensing drugs withdraws guilty plea
A Middle Georgia physician who last year pleaded guilty to illegally dispensing drugs to patients will be allowed to withdraw his plea.
A federal judge, who earlier this year denied Dr. Thomas H. Sachy’s effort to in essence “take back” his plea, on Thursday granted Sachy’s withdrawal based on a change in the law that came in the wake of his June 2021 plea.
Sachy, 58, of Jones County, was arrested in 2018 and accused of money laundering, drug dispensation and distribution crimes, and also of unlawfully dispensing drugs that led to death or serious injury. One person Sachy prescribed oxycodone and fentanyl to died in 2017, federal authorities have alleged.
Last June, Sachy entered a guilty plea to one count — unlawful distribution of controlled substances — in a multi-count indictment.
U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land’s order granting Sachy’s plea withdrawal on Thursday noted that at the time Sachy entered his guilty plea that legal precedent did not require prosecutors “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (Sachy) knew that he was acting in an unauthorized manner.”
In late June of this year, while Sachy still awaited sentencing, the Supreme Court overruled the precedent.
Sachy’s motion to withdraw his plea said he would not have pleaded guilty had the precedent not been in place.
His case is now set to go to trial in late January.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.
This story was originally published August 18, 2022 at 3:16 PM.