A former Juneau Youth Football League coach told a Juneau judge on Thursday getting arrested for illegally obtaining Vicodin last year might have been one of the best things that could have happened to him.
“I haven’t felt this good in years,” 44-year-old Robert A. Biddinger said during his sentencing hearing.
Being in jail has afforded him a chance to get “clean and sober” after battling an addiction to the pain killers for more than 18 months, he said.
Biddinger was arrested in January after a Juneau Police Department investigation revealed Biddinger’s girlfriend Donya Owens, a dental assistant, was calling in prescription orders for him. Biddinger, for his part, would pick up the drugs at the pharmacies.
Owens was authorized to call in prescriptions, but not for Biddinger, since he wasn’t a patient.
Prosecutors said the couple had scammed all the pharmacies in Juneau over a four-month period last fall.
Police had launched an investigation after a pharmacist who works for both Foodland Super Drug and Juneau Drug Co. Inc. thought it was suspicious Owens was calling in prescriptions for Biddinger and was asking for return calls to be placed to her cell phone.
Biddinger and Owens were each indicted in late January on 22 felony counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance.
Biddinger pleaded guilty in March, and he admitted two of the counts against him for picking up 20 Vicodin pills at the Safeway pharmacy in Juneau on Aug. 18, 2011, and 20 Vicodin pills at the Foodland Super Drug pharmacy on West Willoughby Avenue on Sept. 1, 2011.
A plea deal dismissed the other charges against him.
Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg sentenced Biddinger Thursday to serve a total of 1 1/2 years in prison for the crimes.
Biddinger received two years in prison with one year suspended for each of the felonies. Six months of sentence runs consecutively and six months runs concurrently, which accounts for the 1 1/2 composite sentence.
Biddinger is also required to be on probation for three years after he is released from custody.
Biddinger’s attorney Grace Lee explained to the judge that Biddinger became addicted to Vicodin after he had shoulder surgery in 2010. But after he had his rotator cuff replaced, he fell out of a truck and reinjured himself. He had to have the surgery again.
Biddinger said his doctor prescribed him Vicodin to cope with the pain, and that he was lawfully prescribed the pills for 18 months.
When he realized he was addicted, he called his doctor to tell him to stop prescribing the medication, Biddinger said.
“The phantom pains took over after that and I lost control,” Biddinger said.
Soon thereafter, he asked Owens to help him obtain the drugs. The scam continued from August to November, prosecutors said.
The pills were only used for personal use, and were never sold to anyone else, prosecutors said.
On Thursday, Biddinger expressed remorse for his actions, saying it was embarrassing. He said he would probably never coach football for the JYFL again.
“It was a really horrible thing that I did, and people got hurt,” he said.
Owens also has pleaded guilty and was sentenced last week to serve one year in prison. Her attorney, Kirsten Swanson, said Owens lost her job and will never be allowed to work in a dentist’s office again.
In the face of legal troubles, Owens is also now fighting to keep custody of her young children, ages 9 and 11.
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (6)
Add commentMaybe that's the solution
A separate Junkies Wing at Lemon Creek that only houses addicts. Lock it down tight so no contraband can get in. Sentence addicts to 18 months with intense drug counseling.
Let's help these people. Maybe tough love is what it takes.
I'm not someone who usually
I'm not someone who usually makes a comment but what was the point of informing the community he was a former JYFL Coach? Is that really relevant to his recent activities? There are a lot of good people who work very hard and donate several hours of their time to that program and in one sentence you are disintegrating their reputation.... sad.
Out in a year.
I don't remember what Mom's sentence was. Of course the kids get the worse sentence.
Start to the solution
18 months of rehab is a very good start to making a needed change in how we deal with drug offenses. Rehab shorter than a year is completely worthless. I think there needs to be a component of teaching them how to live in the real world. Majority of addicts do not know how to function in the real world. Holding down a job, facing daily life head on, even basics like cooking and cleaning. These are all things they have not dealt with under the cloud of their addiction. For many the addiction lead them to a level of delusional narcissism where they felt entitled. They hid from reality in the drug, going gets tough, tough get high. Never realizing that getting high is making things tougher and the only way to really improve the situation is to face it head on. We need to help them get these tools. Otherwise the first time life gets bumpy they will be back on the junk.
I hope sooner rather than later we will start to address this problem from a solving standpoint rather than a warehousing stance.
Yes skirkz
The kids are definitely facing the hardest sentence here. Thank you for acknowledging that.....
Feelin better?
The court has allowed this bozo to feel better than he has in a very long time. How many times have we heard this bunch of 'lemme off' crud? The feel better should be followed up in about 3 months of Lemon Creek, to see if he wants to recant. The thing that keeps buggin me is Juneau is a small city. How long did these idiots think "every pharmacy" in town was gonna be stupid? The old "why do ya think it's called dope" is so apropos. The only sad and should be felt issue is the kids! If, especially at their ages, the right circumstances don't happen, they'll be no more than Lemon Creek trainees. Moms and dads doing crime should have special, longer sentences....the kids do!