KEY LARGO, Fla. – A Miami-Dade County doctor was arrested Tuesday after state prosecutors said she illegally prescribed opioid drugs to a patient, resulting in the woman's death.
Dr. Marta Farinas, 48, faces charges of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic in oxycodone and delivery of oxycodone.
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"Doctors are supposed to heal their patients, not feed their addictions," Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement. "This doctor prescribed opioid substances illegally and in bad faith while conspiring with the victim to traffic and deliver oxycodone.”
In March, Monroe County sheriff's deputies found 35-year-old Leigh Anne Milazzo dead at her home in Key Largo. Milazzo's body was found next to a bottle of oxycodone and Farinas had written the prescription the day before. A toxicology report determined that Milazzo died of an overdose of oxycodone and alprazolam, a sedative sold under the brand name Xanax.
After an investigation involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, authorities said they discovered that Farinas and Milazzo conspired to traffic narcotics. Prosecutors said text messages between the two showed Farinas provided prescriptions at Milazzo's request, even delivering the prescription to her home.
Farinas received a portion of the medications after she prescribed them to Milazzo, prosecutors said. She operates a private practice in Miami Gardens.
In May 2018, Farinas' boyfriend died of a drug overdose in Miami-Dade County. During that investigation, authorities interviewed Farinas about her possible involvement in his death, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Farinas was held on $100,000 bond at Miami-Dade County's Turner Guilford Knight Correction Center. She appeared in bond court Wednesday morning, at which time a Miami-Dade County judge ordered that she be placed on house arrest with a GPS monitor if she posts bail.