Atlanta VA patients allege they sold methadone to their own drug rehab counselor

ATLANTA - The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office wants to know more about drug deals that allegedly took place inside the Atlanta VA, with a social worker accused of buying bottles of methadone from patients.

The DA’s office has requested investigative records from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the FOX 5 I-Team has learned, planning to conduct a "thorough analysis" into whether the case should be pursued criminally.

Records obtained by the I-Team show at least three patients came forward in 2022, claiming a drug rehabilitation counselor for the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center’s opioid treatment clinic convinced them to sell him their methadone, a prescription narcotic which they needed to manage their addictions.

"I lost all respect for recovery. I thought it was a joke," Army veteran Ontonio Bradley, 50, told the I-Team. "I just figured, why should I stay clean anymore?"

Records show the veterans first reported VA social worker Philip Fritz to a nurse and a doctor.

Bradley said he later gave investigators cell phone videos showing alleged transactions in Fritz’ office, along with screenshots of Cash App receipts showing thousands of dollars paid by Fritz to Bradley and another veteran.

Bradley says the sales went on for years, and after he and other veterans talked among themselves about what their counselor was doing, they decided to put an end to it.

Fritz no longer works as an addiction counselor. In brief comments to FOX 5, he denied the allegations.

What the videos show

The I-Team also obtained the veterans’ cell phone videos. One shows Fritz apparently discussing price with a patient, then taking several bottles from him and putting them away behind his desk.

"Like $650?" the veteran says.

"That’s perfect," Fritz answers, later saying, "Yeah, $650, that’s do-able. I appreciate that."

The I-Team spoke with the veteran who recorded the video, but he did not wish to be named in this story.

In another cell phone video, recorded by Bradley, the social worker is seen handling bottles and appears to remove the label from one. At one point, he hands an empty bottle over to Bradley.

For reasons that are unclear, Fritz still works at the VA, in the same building but in a different capacity. The agency told the I-Team that federal prosecutors passed on the case, and VA leadership is still mulling what to do next.

"As soon as we were notified of these allegations," a written statement from a VA press secretary said, "we immediately removed this employee from clinical care and reassigned him to administrative duties with no patient contact – where he has remained – pending the results of the investigation."

Last month, a Veterans Affairs official contacted the DeKalb DA’s office about the case, prompting the latest review.

Torpedoing addiction treatment

The I-Team tried to speak with Fritz, but he declined to answer questions.

"The allegations are false, whatever you're talking about," Fritz said just before entering his vehicle and driving away.

Methadone is a prescription narcotic, considered a risk-reduction drug, that’s used to keep recovering addicts off hard street drugs like heroin and fentanyl.

"The idea is to basically prevent them from getting high, but keeping them from going through withdrawal," University of Georgia College of Pharmacy professor Randall Tackett said.

Dr. Tackett said methadone can be abused and can be addictive, so there is a black market for it. Speaking generally and not about the VA case, he said that to convince a recovering opioid addict to give up all or part of their methadone supply would be to torpedo their recovery.

"There’s the chance of that individual not having the methadone and then start going into withdrawal," he said, "and potentially start looking for other ways to offset that, which is, look for other drugs."

After reporting what happened to the VA, Bradley and another vet filed a court complaint against Fritz and the federal government.

"Instead of helping us to abstain from the use of illicit street drugs, we were encouraged to sell him our medication and told that it was ok to use illicit street drugs because more than likely we were (going) to use the drugs anyway," the complaint, filed in 2023 in U.S. District Court, says.

The veterans filed the complaint on their own, without a lawyer, citing "unethical coercion and psychological manipulation" of the VA counselor’s clients.

"Plaintiff Ontonio Bradley was encouraged to sell his Methadone to the Defendant and encouraged to replace the needed medication with Fentanyl, Crack, and Cocaine," the claim says. "The Defendant (succeeded) in facilitating a relapse of Mr. Bradley's 11-year Sobriety."

On a motion from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a federal judge dismissed Bradley's and the other vet's lawsuit against the government last month. Not on the merits, but because allegedly buying methadone would be outside the scope of Fritz' job duties for the VA, and because the federal government has sovereign immunity from civil claims, according to the dismissal order.

‘Viability of the case’

The VA, however, told the I-Team it hasn’t made a final decision on the matter.

"These alleged actions are unacceptable," the written statement by Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said. "We strongly condemn any illegal misconduct by staff, and we hold our employees to the highest standards of ethics and professionalism as they serve our nation’s Veterans."

The agency’s Office of Inspector General conducted an investigation, Hayes said, but declined to go further "after consultation with federal prosecutors." OIG turned over its evidence to Atlanta VA leadership in May.

"We are actively reviewing this matter and will take all appropriate administrative action," the statement said. "We have also referred the matter to local police."

The DeKalb County DA’s office told the I-Team that an OIG representative disclosed that federal prosecutors passed on the case "based on legal issues that may have tainted the original investigation."

"During the discussion we observed the same legal issues that our Federal counterparts identified and advised that it may not be possible to move forward with a prosecution of the case," a DA’s office spokeswoman said in an email. "However, we requested the full case file so a thorough analysis of the investigation can be completed, and a final determination can be made on the viability of the case."

Bradley said he served in the Army from 1994 to 1997, and his struggles with cocaine and opiate addiction led him to the Atlanta VA’s treatment clinic. He said when his then-counselor approached him about selling his methadone, he didn’t feel like he could say no.

"I would have done anything for him at the time," he said. "I loved that guy."

He said the worst part about the ordeal is that, despite all the information he turned over, he still runs into Fritz occasionally at the VA.

"You feel like they don't care about you," he said. "You feel like you served your country for nothing. Feel like you’re trash."