(WBIR - Knoxville) Thursday capped an extended and very public fall from grace for 48-year-old Tim Woods, who changed his tune and admitted in federal court he was an illegal drug dealer. Woods pleaded guilty to participating in what prosecutors say was the region's biggest drug trafficking pill mill operation.
Woods previously served as police chief and city manager for Maynardville. He also worked as a school bus contractor for Knox County Schools for nearly a decade. Now he will serve hard time in a federal prison.
Woods pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess oxycodone, a powerful pain killer, and money laundering. He is expected to receive between 12 to 15 years in prison, according to federal guidelines. His sentencing is set for February 10, 2016.
MAYNARDVILLE ACCUSATIONS
Woods made headlines in July 2008 when he was the police chief and city manager of Maynardville in Union County. He resigned amid accusations of fraud. Specifically, several residents told 10News that Woods gave them hand-gun safety course certificates without actually administering the class. Woods was accused of offering the free certificates in exchange for various goods or services.
"He should have never given anybody one for self gain. He should've made me take the class. He should have made me go to the range, because he doesn't know if I can shoot or not. I could shoot myself in the foot and he'd never know," said Union County resident Bonnie Tedelman to 10News in July 2008.
Woods maintained his innocence, but said he would resign because he did not want to be a distraction.
"I haven't done anything wrong or immoral and I'm sticking by that," said Woods in 2008. He added that city council meetings became preoccupied with people either attacking or defending him and said, "That is my number one reason why I'm stepping down."
SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTOR
Woods began working as a school bus contractor for Knox County Schools in 2006. He was in charge of drivers who operated 17 routes in Knox County.
In January 2015, a review of bus driver credentials revealed on of the drivers operating for Woods did not have the required licenses.
In March 2015, Woods lost his entire contract for Knox County Schools when he lost his freedom during a massive raid of pain clinics throughout Knox and Loudon Counties that resulted in the arrests of more than 100 people. Knox County Schools terminated his contract.
PILL MILL BUSTS & PLEA REVERSAL
Woods initially claimed he was innocent of charges he sold narcotics and laundered money. A crowd of nearly 30 friends and family members showed up to his court date in March as a show of support.
"Innocent until proven guilty. If he's proven guilty, it will literally shock me," said friend Stanley Shults outside the federal courthouse in March.
On Thursday, shock sank in as reality as Tim Woods admitted he was a drug dealer from early 2013 to March 2015, during which time he obtained at least 200,000 milligrams of oxycodone and other prescription opioids.
Woods worked as a "sponsor," which amounts to a lower-level leader who assembled and financially supported a team of drug addicts to get his hands on massive quantities of painkillers. Woods provided $1,000 a month to patients of shady pain clinics that provided prescriptions for cash. The patients then gave Woods half of their pills so he could sell them at street value for a profit.
Woods also bribed employees at pain clinics to send him patients he could sponsor. He also paid bribes so pain clinic workers would falsify drug tests so his sponsored patients could obtain oxycodone prescriptions.
Woods will remain at the Blount County Jail without bond pending sentencing. Transcripts from his detainment hearing earlier this year indicate detectives recorded phone conversations Woods made from jail. In the phone calls, Woods was trying to sell some of his possessions and hide the money so he could flee if released before his trial. Woods also stated he would either run or kill himself rather than go to prison.
BIGGER TARGETS AWAIT
In the grand scheme of things, Tim Woods is a low-level player out of around 100 people charged in a massive pill mill operation.
At the heart of the federal case is Sylvia Hofsetter, a former Florida resident who moved to Knoxville in 2011 and orchestrated a four-year long pill mill operation in Lenoir City and Knoxville that netted upwards of $30 million and distributed more than 12 million pills. Hofstetter used the drug revenues to live a $1.2 million–a-year lifestyle.
In March 2015, authorities raided East Knoxville Healthcare Services on Lovell Road, Knoxville Pain Care on West Park Boulevard and her Falcon Pointe Drive home in West Knox County and brought the regional operation to a halt.
Federal agents in March outlined a lengthy multi-year investigation the pain clinics she was directed to operate by people in Florida known as "the Italians," and the day-to-day operations of clinics that took cash for painkiller prescriptions with no medical doctor on site.
When state laws clamped down on painkiller pill-mills in Florida, the operators set their sights on relocating to Tennessee to take the supply to where the demand was.
The two clinics overseen by Hofstetter in Lenoir City and at Lovell Road in West Knoxville each received more than 1,000 patients a month. There were no more than two doctors ever at any location. Patient visits usually took five minutes before the customers had a written prescription for powerful opioids in-hand.
Customers paid cash only. Trips to the clinic cost $325 to $350 per visit. The cash expense for an uninsured person to visit a legitimate doctor for the same treatment would typically cost $150.
In four years, the FBI said prescriptions for more than 12 million pills were written by Hofstetter's clinics, which are actually owned in name-only by Dr. Richard Larson. Investigators said there were at least seven overdose deaths due entirely to opioid drugs that were prescribed by Hofstetter's clinics.
He said seven deaths was a solid estimate because that number does not include dozens of other overdose deaths where other drugs may have been in the victims' systems.
Hofstetter's trial is currently set for June 2016.
