PORT ALLEN - The United States Department of Justice ordered a Port Allen pharmacist to pay civil penalties in the wake of a federal lawsuit charging the man with the unlawful dispensing of controlled substances. 

According to the DoJ, the Port Allen-based pharmacy, Stevens Pharmacy, and its owner, Steven Gough, were ordered to pay $275 thousand in civil penalties to resolve the lawsuit. Gough was charged with the alleged unlawful dispensing of controlled substances through false prescriptions. 

Between January 2018 and March 2020, Gough allegedly filled 1,179 falsified and invalid prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl. The prescriptions were either unsigned, expired, or incomplete, and Gough also allegedly would fill them with more than was prescribed. 

Gough is required to provide a notice to the Drug Enforcement Administration for three years if he owns or operates another pharmacy.

The DoJ clarified that the payment of the penalties was not an admission of wrongdoing from Gough, nor was it a concession from the DoJ that the charges were not well-founded.