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An Evansville addiction counselor who illegally dealt drugs to his patients will no longer be licensed in Indiana to provide counseling.
Following an administrative complaint by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office, the Indiana Behavioral Health and Human Services Licensing Board voted to revoke professional licensing held by Michael Hagedorn, according to a news release.
“Here we have a licensee who used his vulnerable patients for his own financial gain by feeding rather than treating their drug habits,” Rokita said in the release. “There is no world in which such a person deserves to work in the mental health and addiction field and thankfully they never will be able to again. We will continue standing up for vulnerable Hoosiers.”
Hagedorn is serving 16 years through the Indiana Department of Correction following convictions for dealing in methamphetamine and dealing in a narcotic drug.
He was sentenced on May 30 to 10 years for dealing meth, 10 years for dealing narcotics, and a six-year enhancement for being a habitual offender.
Detectives with the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force began investigating Hagedorn after receiving tips that he was dealing large quantities of narcotics.
The tips also alleged Hagedorn was selling the drugs to people using his counseling services.
Hagedorn is the former owner and director of an addiction treatment counseling center.
He admitted to using 15.1 grams of meth found in his vehicle. At his home in Newburgh, investigators also found firearms, body armor, marijuana and digital scales.
“Beyond the debt he is paying to society through the criminal justice system, this individual must also be kept far away from credentials that would enable him again to abuse patients from a position of trust,” Rokita said.
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