LIHUE — Harold “Tex” Spear III, the former Kauai physician accused of two counts of distributing prescription narcotics to people without getting proper patient identification and documentation, will plead guilty to those charges, his attorney said.

Spear, 56, back on Kauai and living in Hanapepe after his release from the Federal Detention Center on Oahu, appeared before 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe on Tuesday.
On advice of his public defender in the federal case, Spear did make any statement on the record.
He is charged on the state level with felonies for violating state law by issuing prescriptions for controlled substances and not obtaining proper patient identification and documentation, and for administering, prescribing or dispensing a controlled substance without first establishing a bona fide physician-patient relationship, according to state court records.
In July, in federal court on Oahu, Spear pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing narcotics to people with whom he never established face-to-face, doctor-patient relationships.
State Deputy Public Defender Edmund Acoba, representing Spear in the state matters, said that Spear will plead guilty to the state charges on Jan. 13.
Acoba said a plea agreement in the state cases will suggest making any prison time concurrent with the federal time. Watanabe is not bound by conditions agreed to by county prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Spear, who used to practice medicine at the Hanapepe Clinic, pleaded guilty to dispensing controlled substances “outside the usual course of professional practice” and “not for a legitimate medical purpose,” according to an earlier press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Spear also pleaded guilty to one additional similar charge, filed in the Middle District of Alabama, of dispensing controlled substances. An Internet pharmacy had operated in that part of Alabama and filled narcotic prescriptions written by Spear.
Spear is scheduled to be sentenced on the five federal charges Jan. 8 before U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, in Honolulu.
He faces up to 20 years imprisonment and fines of up to $1 million on each of the four Hawaii charges, and up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 on the Alabama charge.