A former state lawmaker from Nixa who once imagined herself as becoming a researcher like Marie Curie or Mother Teresa on Tuesday, Feb. 28, was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for fraud, lying and distributing controlled substances without a valid prescription.
Patricia “Tricia” Derges, 65, spoke for 10 minutes in federal court before being sentenced.
She talked about being ridiculed as a child for being overweight — her classmates taunted her as “Fat Pat” — and in court, she reviewed a litany of current physical ailments: bipolarism, uncontrolled diabetes, depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In her pre-sentencing comments to U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes, she said she was a mother of eight and grandmother of 26 with no prior criminal history.
Her defense attorney sought probation — meaning no jail time.
Al Watkins told Wimes his client posed no risk of flight if placed on probation and no risk of re-offending.
Judge says he never saw one thing: contrition
But Wimes, before he pronounced the sentence, said there was something significant he never heard from Derges either in her 10-minute presentation or in the extensive pre-sentencing investigation.
“What I have not heard is any level of contrition,” the judge said. “I have not heard it throughout this case. I did not hear it then. I did not see it.
“This is just a betrayal of public trust,” he said.
He said she preyed on her patients.
“When people are in such significant pain, they are willing to do anything and you took advantage of that,” he told her.
A jury convicted her in June
A jury in June found Derges guilty on multiple counts.
In summary, she was found guilty of selling a treatment that she had advertised as having stem cells in it while knowing it did not; she illegally wrote prescriptions; she lied to investigators; she illegally accepted federal COVID-19 funds.
Derges graduated from medical school oversees, near Aruba, but was not accepted into a post-graduate residency program. She worked as a licensed assistant physician in Missouri.
She oversaw for-profit medical clinics and nonprofit medical clinics in the Ozarks.
“I have helped impact the lives of 25,000 in Southwest Missouri,” she told the judge.
She cared for the poor and homeless, her attorney said.
She was well aware ‘stem cells sell’
Prosecutor Randall D. Eggert countered. He told the judge Derges was driven by money, not a higher calling.
She realized in her business, Eggert said, that “stem cells sell.”
As a result, he said, Derges marketed that she was treating people with stem cells and told her patients that same thing knowing all along she wasn’t.
“There was no concern about the patients she lied to,” Eggert said. “… No concern about the lies she told to the investigators in this case.”
Derges had money, Eggert said. She had strong family ties; she knew the difference between right and wrong.
She was not some “20-year-old selling methamphetamine” on the street, he said.
Eggert told the judge that Derges had a $500,000 house and drove an expensive car.
He attacked the notion that Derges was in any way like Marie Curie or Mother Teresa.
“A life of sacrifice involves, well, sacrifice,” he said.
In addition to the prison sentence, Derges was ordered to make restitution of $500,000 to former patients.
Derges was elected to the House in 2020
To put the sentence of 75 months in perspective, Judge Wimes said federal sentencing guidelines recommended a range of 87 to 108 months.
Prosecutors wanted 96 months.
Derges, a Republican, was elected to the Missouri House in November 2020.
At her June sentencing, U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore, said in a prepared statement:
“This is an elected official who stole money from the public, a purported humanitarian who cheated and lied to her patients, and a medical professional who illegally distributed drugs.
“She violated her position of trust to selfishly enrich herself at the expense of others.”
