Mercer County Woman Admits Involvement in Trenton Oxycodone Ring
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 20, 2013 |
TRENTON—A Mercer County, New Jersey woman today admitted her role in conspiring with Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, Charles Hall, III, and others to illegally distribute oxycodone pain pills, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Carol M. Kounitz, 57, of Hamilton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton federal court to an information charging her with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Between August 2011 and September 2011, Carol M. Kounitz agreed with Charles Hall, III, Stephanie Lima, and Joseph A. Giorgianni to obtain oxycodone from a doctor in exchange for payment. In coordination with Hall, on August 17, 2011, Kounitz went to a Nutley, New Jersey doctor and obtained a prescription for 120 15-milligram oxycodone pills for resale. Kounitz and Lima later filled that prescription and gave the pills to Hall in exchange for payment. Kounitz, Hall, and Lima made a second trip to the doctor on September 14, 2011, during which she obtained a prescription for 120 30-milligram oxycodone pills, and Lima obtained a prescription for 120 15-milligram oxycodone pills. Kounitz and Lima later filled those prescriptions and provided the pills to Hall in exchange for payment. Kounitz understood Giorgianni to be overseeing the sale of the oxycodone that she and Lima provided to Hall.
The drug conspiracy count to which Kounitz pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for June 26, 2013.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Newark Field Office, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric W. Moran and Matthew J. Skahill of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Trenton and Camden, respectively.