Kansas Physician Assistant Indicted

What Happened

A federal grand jury in Wichita, Kansas, returned an indictment in September 2021 against David Sulzman, a physician assistant, and Martin Sulzman, charging both with conspiracy to dispense a controlled substance. According to court documents, between 2014 and 2019 David Sulzman allegedly used his position as a physician assistant to prescribe controlled substances to individuals who were not his patients. He faces 44 counts of unlawful distribution and dispensing of a controlled substance, and Martin Sulzman is also charged with two counts of witness tampering. The DEA investigated. An indictment is only an allegation.

“David Sulzman allegedly used his position as a physician assistant to prescribe controlled substances to individuals who were not his patients.”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 10, 2021

Related Guidance

15 Red Flags of Drug Diversion — Behavioral and transactional indicators of diversion.
Investigation Playbook — How to investigate suspected diversion inside an organization.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 10, 2021

Case at a Glance

Setting: Physician assistant practice
Drug: Controlled substances
Method: Allegedly prescribed controlled substances to individuals who were not his patients
Status: Indicted September 2021 on 44 counts; case pending

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

What this case shows

Where this record connects to the site's working material. Links are chosen from the case's setting, drug and method fields.

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Educational content, not legal advice.

About the author

DivertGuard is built and maintained by Alex Rodriguez, MHIIM, CPhT (also known as Jesus Rodriguez) — a drug diversion prevention program manager with more than a decade in pharmacy practice, including direct responsibility for a health-system controlled substance diversion prevention program.

Conference presentations

2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
2024 — No Pill Left Behind: Strategies for Comprehensive Drug Accountability (with Eric Andrews)
2022 — Ready for My Close Up! Implementing, Maintaining, and Expanding Drug Diversion Prevention Cameras (with Jeremy Quinn, Shawn Young, and John Bailey)

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Faculty, ASHP Drug Diversion Certificate
Speaker, Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)
Published author, Pharmacy Purchasing & Products

Credentials

Doctorate candidate — Doctor of Health Informatics (DHI), Rutgers University, School of Health Professions; research on health data analytics and the prediction of cognitive decline
MHIIM — master's in health informatics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2019–2021)
CPhT — Certified Pharmacy Technician, with 10+ years of pharmacy practice across retail, hospice, compounding, home-health, and hospital settings

The assessment items, weighting, and case registry behind this site come from that operational background — building and running a diversion prevention program, not from vendor marketing. Every tool here is free, requires no signup, and is based on published regulatory and professional standards (DEA, Joint Commission, ASHP, CDC).

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Registry Insights: Sentences, Fines, States and Outcomes

Sentence lengths, fines and restitution, cases per 100,000 pharmacists by state, and plea and licence outcomes, each counted from the case records with its n, plus charts of cases by year, state and drug class

Kansas Physician Assistant Indicted Over Prescription Scheme