Connections Community Support Programs, Controlled Substances Act Violations, Delaware 2023

WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss announced today that the United States filed a civil complaint against Connections Community Support Programs, Inc. as well as three of its current and former corporate officers, Catherine Devaney McKay, William Northey, and Steven Davis, in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

The United States alleges that Connections and its corporate officers violated the Controlled Substances Act by negligently failing to keep required documentation of its distribution and dispensing of controlled substances, particularly methadone and buprenorphine used in Connections’ treatment of opioid use disorder. Each violation of the recordkeeping requirements under the Controlled Substances Act carries a civil penalty of up to $15,040.

During an inspection and audit in March 2019, diversion investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration determined that Connections was unable to provide records identifying the location of more than 244 bottles of methadone liquid and more than 1,100 doses of buprenorphine.

The United States alleges that Connections has a long history of negligent failure to maintain proper records, in addition to numerous instances in which required records were created after the fact and backdated to make it appear that they had been created at an earlier time. The United States also alleges that, on numerous occasions, Connections represented to DEA that it was undertaking additional measures to improve its compliance and then failed to do so.

The Complaint also alleges that McKay, Northey, and Davis, all of whom were corporate officers of Connections, negligently delegated responsibility for compliance with the Controlled Substances Act to individuals they knew were unqualified and ill-suited to those responsibilities, and that they failed to provide adequate training and supervision for those individuals.

“As one of the largest providers of substance abuse treatment in Delaware, Connections is well aware of the extent of the opioid crisis in our state,” said U.S. Attorney Weiss. “By failing for years to properly document their distribution and dispensing of controlled substances, Connections and its executives have shirked their responsibility to ensure that they were not contributing to the crisis by creating an environment in which their own inventory of controlled substances could be diverted for abuse or sale.”

Connections Community Support Programs, Catherine Devaney McKay, William Northey, and Steven Davis are the defendant/respondents in this case. The exact criminal charges against them are civil penalties under the Controlled Substances Act. This matter occurred in WILMINGTON, Del. on March 2019. The current status of this case is ongoing litigation. The civil penalty for each violation of the recordkeeping requirements under the Controlled Substances Act carries up to $15,040.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-de/pr/united-states-brings-federal-controlled-substances-act-lawsuit-against-connections