Lavar Carter was more than a pill pusher. He was a college-educated opioid dealer who was given a break the first time he broke the law.

Then he broke the law again — for the same crime, peddling pain pills — yet was spared the stiff sentence the feds wanted.

In U.S. District Court this week, Carter, 45, of Southfield, was sentenced to seven years in prison for distributing more than 90,000 highly addictive prescription pain pills on the streets — a crime similar to what he was convicted of almost a decade earlier. That time, he cooperated with the government and got a 20-month prison sentence, compared with the 6½ years he was facing.

Then eight years later, he got caught up in another opioid scheme.

Prosecutors wanted dealer locked up for 11 years

He was released on bond, yet continued to work the illegal pill trade, said prosecutors, who pushed for a maximum 11-year prison sentence for Carter, calling him an “educated 44-year-old man” who repeatedly thumbed his nose at the law.

"By his own repeated conduct, Carter has demonstrated himself to be completely undeterred despite a prior federal prison sentence," Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Ross wrote in a sentencing memo, in which he pushed for Carter to get 110-137 months in prison. "(That sentence range) is most appropriate for a recidivist like Carter who has demonstrated his contempt for this court, its orders, and society’s most-basic expectations.”

With his children in the courtroom, Carter and his lawyer sought mercy from the judge.

Carter requested a three-year prison sentence, citing, in part, his chronic battle with alcoholism: He was drinking a fifth of booze a day when he committed these crimes, his lawyer argued in court records.

Carter also cited a troubled and dysfunctional childhood. His mom was in prison until he was 9, and battled a lifelong addiction to drugs. His dad was a chronic alcoholic who had little to no involvement in his life. He spent his formative years rotating from one grandparent's house to another. He started drinking at 13, and smoking pot at 16. Drunken driving convictions followed, though he would eventually marry and have five children — who urged the judge to show mercy to their dad.

Carter's children described him as a loving and supportive father who took them to sporting events, attended their volleyball games, taught them how to fish and encouraged them to do good things with their lives. As one son stated in a letter to the judge: “… every time I tell him ‘I want to be like you when I grow up,’ he responds with, ‘No, son, you want to be better than me.’ "

The probation department recommended a sentence range of 151-188 months for Carter, about 12 to 15½ years.

In the end, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman gave Carter seven years — three years less than what prosecutors sought and roughly half of the probation department's recommendation, though more than double what Carter hoped for.

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Feds: Carter helped feed addictions

According to court records, Carter was a patient recruiter who used family members and people he met at soup kitchens to obtain information to fill prescriptions for opioids that wound up on the streets. Over the course of a year, he distributed more than 90,000 doses of Oxycontin, Percocet and other opioids out of an area medical clinic.

Prosecutors said he worked at the New Vision Rehab Center, where he provided doctors with lists of patient names and identification that he knew were used to fill medically unnecessary prescriptions. He and others exchanged the prescriptions for cash in a scheme that lasted from 2019-20.

Carter pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in March 2021. Following his guilty plea, he was released on bond.

But he was right back at it, said prosecutors, who said they had text messages that showed Carter was still dealing opioids while out on bond.

Following his sentencing, Carter’s bond was immediately revoked and the U.S. marshals took him into custody.

“Carter’s scheme of illegally funneling prescription pills into communities and fueling overdose deaths in exchange for profits has come to an end,” stated Orville Greene, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration Detroit office.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription opioids continue to be involved in more overdose deaths than any other drug, with America witnessing a 15-year increase in deaths from prescription opioid overdoses, and a recent surge in illegal opioid overdoses driven mainly by heroin and illegally made fentanyl. In Michigan, more people die from drug overdoses — including opioid, fentanyl, and heroin — than car accidents.

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'I would like to apologize'

Carter, who is married with five children, described his conduct as a “terrible decision” in a letter to the court.

“I would like to apologize to anybody that I offended while my involvement of this crime, and to my family for putting them through this stressful time,” the letter reads. “In the future I will make better decisions for myself and my family.“

In asking for mercy, Carter cited his 20 years coaching youth football for Detroit PAL, saying football is his passion and helped earn him a college scholarship at the University of Arkansas at Pine-Bluff.

“My new plan is to set some goals,” Carter’s letter continued, stressing life behind bars would hinder his ability to work and support his family. “I will rehabilitate my mind and body to become a better person, husband, father and mentor.”

In a presentencing report, Carter also stated:

“Once again I have traveled down the wrong path and made a decision that will determine my success or failure as a man. I will take this time to improve myself and become rehabilitated. I have not given up …”

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opioid dealer Lavar Carter sentenced to 7 years in prison