ATLANTA — The big rigs came from all corners of the country.
By the thousands, they pulled into the Petro Stopping Center, a 24-hour truck stop off Interstate 285 in Atlanta. There, truckers could find coffee and CB radios, a tattoo shop, and even a trucker’s chapel, inside an old shipping container.
It was also where they could find Dr. Tony.
A licensed chiropractor, Anthony Lefteris got federally certified in 2014 to conduct the medical exams truckers must pass to get their commercial driver’s license.
Lefteris proved prolific. He could complete nearly as many exams in an hour as a typical certified examiner did in a month. In less than three years, he had issued more than 6,500 certificates of good health to truckers from 43 states.
There was just one problem, prosecutors say: He didn’t actually do the full medical exam required by law.
Truckers aren’t exactly the healthiest Americans — a 2010 study found more than half were smokers, and they were twice as likely as other working adults to be morbidly obese. The medical exam is supposed to weed out those with hearing or vision problems, uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure, substance-abuse issues, or other conditions that could make them a danger on the road.
Lefteris simply did not do many of those tests, court filings allege.
It was an anonymous tip from a driver that ultimately led to Lefteris’s arrest last month. He faces criminal charges of falsifying documents filed with a federal agency.
Lefteris, 71, has denied any wrongdoing and is free on $20,000 bond. Neither he nor his lawyers responded to repeated requests for comment.
But prosecutors allege his willingness to falsify medical exams was known among truckers, and drivers who might otherwise have failed their physicals made a point of stopping by his office.
“There’s no reason for any driver in perfect health to go this route,’’ said John Horn, US attorney for the northern district of Georgia. Lefteris was “taking the underlying risk of a danger on the road, and magnifying it, putting the patient or the public’s life at risk.’’
New commercial safety measures — bans on texting and hand-held cellphone use, for example — have helped lower US highway fatalities by a fifth since 2005. In 2014, the Department of Transportation launched a national registry of certified medical examiners, to identify professionals who understood “all of the demands required to operate large trucks and passenger buses safely,’’ said former transportation secretary Ray LaHood.
The registry now holds more than 50,000 certified medical examiners, said Duane DeBruyne, a spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It includes doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and other practitioners.
The agency said the exam, which is supposed to take 25 minutes to complete, must include hearing and vision tests, a urine drug screening, and a review of a driver’s medical history. Examiners must discern whether truckers have potentially disqualifying conditions.
DeBruyne said Motor Carrier Safety doesn’t track the number of medical practitioners who have lost exam privileges. But at least two — a small-town Missouri chiropractor who falsified her certificates and a New York internist who let interns forge his name on forms — last year pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
The investigation into Dr. Tony started with one of his patients.
On March 6, 2015, a driver identified as “C.D.’’ went to Lefteris’s office to obtain a medical certificate, according to an affidavit from Tammie Moore, a special agent for the DOT inspector general.
Asked if he had medical issues, C.D. replied he had high blood pressure — one of the conditions that could make truckers ineligible for a commercial driver’s license. Lefteris didn’t probe further. He allegedly asked more questions but performed no actual tests, not even a pulse check, before giving C.D. a medical certificate.
The shoddy exam prompted C.D. to report his experience to Georgia Department of Public Safety compliance officers.
Eighteen months later, three Georgia undercover officers visited Lefteris’s office at the Petro Stopping Center. The chiropractor failed to give two of the officers the full array of tests, yet each walked out with medical certificates in 10 minutes or less, according to the affidavit. Lefteris sent the third officer, who acknowledged he was diabetic, to get additional tests elsewhere. Ultimately, the third officer would receive his medical certificate during a follow-up visit.
Following the undercover operation, Moore said, DOT agents paid a visit to the truck stop, observing 12 people enter Lefteris’s office. Eight left with medical certificates; only three urine strips were found in the bathroom’s trash.
When agents entered the office, Lefteris explained the mismatch between exams and certificates by saying he had just taken out the trash. What he didn’t know: The agents had been outside, watching. He hadn’t taken out the trash.
Three weeks later, they took Lefteris into custody.
The day after his arrest, Motor Carrier Safety removed Lefteris from its national registry and issued a public notice that it would revoke thousands of medical certificates issued by the chiropractor.
Lefteris continues to hold his chiropractic license while awaiting trial and has hired defense attorney Don Samuel, known best for high-profile NFL clients Ray Lewis and Ben Roethlisberger. And he recently changed his voice mail. “This is Dr. Tony,’’ it now says. “The office will be temporarily closed until further notice.’’
Max Blau can be reached at maxcblau@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MaxBlau.
