Hampers was arrested in September 2010 on charges that he used five aliases and eight fake patient names to fraudulently obtain drugs such as generic Vicodin, Valium and Ambien 654 times at pharmacies in Denver and Aurora. In July 2011, he pleaded guilty to fourteen of the 654 charges; the rest were dropped.
But the drug charges weren't Hampers's only problems. Two months before he was arrested, former 9News reporter Deborah Sherman filed a civil lawsuit against him, alleging that Hampers threatened and harassed her by e-mail and voicemail after she broke a second date with him. That lawsuit has since been settled.
Hampers's attorneys had asked that Hampers be sentenced to probation for the drug fraud charges, arguing in a motion that the former doctor was not a drug dealer. Instead, they said, he's an addict who personally took all of the pills he stole.
But federal prosecutors argued in their own motion that Hampers should serve twelve to eighteen months in prison for his crimes. "The defendant undoubtedly has saved lives," they wrote in reference to his medical career. "He has also risked them."
A judge this morning decided on probation. Another condition of Hampers's sentence, according to Dorschner? He can't practice medicine or prescribe drugs for five years.
More from our Follow That Story archive: "Dr. Louis Hampers, accused of stalking Deborah Sherman: No extra house arrest freedoms."
