A Honolulu doctor prescribed drugs for nonmedical reasons that resulted in the deaths of two people in 2003 and 2004, according to a federal grand jury indictment issued yesterday.

Barry Odegaard had been indicted last year on 15 felony counts of Medicaid fraud and illegally prescribing the powerful pain medication Oxycodone. The indictment was the result of an investigation that included Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as patients.

Yesterday, the grand jury returned a second indictment, adding two counts that Odegaard provided 2,700 milligrams of Oxycodone on May 5, 2003 that resulted in a death three days later and 1,400 milligrams of methadone on July 23, 2004 that resulted in a death the following day.

Odegaard dispensed the drugs "outside the course of professional medical practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose," the indictment said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Loo said he could not disclose who died or the circumstances because it was not contained in the indictment, but it is believed that the two who died were not undercover agents.

Oxycodone, known by its trade name OxyContin, is considered to be widely abused.

The two counts each carry sentences of 20 years to life in prison.

The charge that a doctor provided a drug that resulted in a death is considered rare here and may be one of the first, if not the first, filed in Hawai'i.

Odegaard, who is free on bond, and his lawyer, Birney Bervar, could not be reached for comment. Odegaard's Kahala office has a phone recording that says he has a new office on Bishop Street.

Odegaard pleaded not guilty last year to an indictment returned in April charging him with fraud and illegally prescribing Oxycodone. He also was accused of accepting cash from undercover agents and submitting claims to Medicaid, which the prosecution said was essentially "double billing."

The indictment charged Odegaard with 10 counts of providing the drug 10 times from March to December 2004. The amounts were as high as 16,000 milligrams, the indictment said.

Odegaard also was charged with five counts of Medicaid fraud for submitting five claims ranging from $84 to $151.

The 10 counts of illegally prescribing Oxycodone each carries up to 20 years in prison. The Medicaid fraud counts have a prison term of up to 10 years each.

Odegaard was permitted to continue practicing medicine but had to give up his DEA certificate permitting him to prescribe controlled drugs, prosecutors said.

Kachun Yeung, another doctor charged in a separate case last year, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of illegally prescribing Oxycodone. Undercover agents posing as patients paid him cash for Oxycodone prescriptions, according to court papers.

Federal prosecutors said Yeung was investigated after 11 patients who were prescribed medications by him died of drug overdoses here from August 2000 to August 2002.

The prosecutors never contended Yeung was responsible for the deaths, but mentioned the deaths to dispute allegations by Yeung's lawyer that the drug agents were unfairly targeting doctors specializing in "pain management."

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.