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Brad Bender, who resigned from the Southampton Town Board on November 24 after being charged with distributing oxycodone, said in a phone interview on Monday that he had been selling the drug to a single individual and not knowingly as part of a large drug ring.
While he knew it was wrong to sell the painkillers, Mr. Bender said, he thought it was for the unnamed man’s personal use, and had no idea that those pills were then being resold to drug addicts.
“Everyone blew this up as if I was creeping around at night selling drugs to drug dealers, which is not the case,” Mr. Bender said. “I shared my medication with one other person, someone I knew, and I thought it was for personal use. It doesn’t make it right, but it is what happened.”
Mr. Bender, who lives in Northampton, surrendered to federal agents in Central Islip on November 24. He was arraigned that afternoon by Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields and pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally distribute oxycodone, which he obtained illegally and then resold for cash and steroids, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The former president of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Association had reached a deal with prosecutors allowing him to plead guilty to the charges if he also agreed to resign from the Town Board. As part of his deal, Mr. Bender has been released on a $100,000 bond and must turn over his passport.
Mr. Bender said he was living as a functional addict, and was encouraged to share the pills to a mutual acquaintance by Michael Troyan, the indicted physician’s assistant who provided the prescriptions, but was never told that the drugs were being resold.
Mr. Troyan was arrested in early November for issuing fake prescriptions for oxycodone.
Mr. Bender also said that he had accepted money for the pills to pay for medical costs stemming from a back injury in 2011 that led to his dependence on the painkillers. At the time, he said, he had tried several methods of pain management, including different pain medications and six epidurals.
Since his arrest and subsequent resignation last week, Mr. Bender has started receiving treatment for his addiction. He is now a member of Narcotics Anonymous and has been attending both group and individual treatment sessions with a therapist.
As part of a plea deal, Mr. Bender is participating in a 90-day treatment program and will attend meetings every day during the three-month span. He is also scheduled to appear at the federal courthouse in Central Islip every two weeks until his sentencing in April. He has cooperated with prosecutors since he was brought in for questioning in connection with the investigation of Mr. Troyan in early November, he said.
If he complies with the conditions set in the plea deal, Mr. Bender said he has been told he will not be sentenced to more than 36 months in jail, and his fine will not exceed $5,000. But he added that it is also possible that he will avoid jail time altogether.
“I will say this, and excuse my French, but I know I f---ed up,” Mr. Bender said. “But if you look at my history as the kind of man that I have been and the things that I have done for my community, that is who I want to be. This is not the guy I wanted to be, it is something that happened.”
He said he is working to improve himself, take responsibility for his actions and move on. Hoping to avoid jail time, Mr. Bender said he has started picking up contracting work again since resigning last week from the Town Board. Through group therapy, he said, he has been seen how many people on the East End are affected by drug problems.
“Now I see there is more going on, and I didn’t see it before,” he said. “We have a major problem with people that are using and abusing drugs, and it can happen on any level. I have seen people in all walks of life at this point, so maybe I can make a difference here. I don’t know, it is still too soon.”
On Monday morning, the Southampton Town Board met to schedule a special election to replace Mr. Bender. The election will take place on Tuesday, January 26, 2016. The candidates for Mr. Bender’s vacant seat on the Town Board have not been finalized yet.
Erin McKinley on Nov 30, 2015