A former state pharmacist was fined $3,000 and sentenced to 18 months’ probation after being convicted of taking payments from drug companies and pocketing money for supervising interns on state time.

Steven Fiorello, 61, was director of pharmacy for Pennsylvania’s Office of Mental Health, Substance and Abuse Services and secretary of a committee that approved Medicaid-paid drugs in state hospitals, prisons and juvenile centers from 1998 to 2003 when he accepted money from drug companies for consulting work, trips and honorariums, state prosecutors said.

A criminal complaint said Fiorello accepted perks from Pfizer and Janssen, two companies that promoted the use of psychiatric drugs in state hospitals.

Authorities charged Fiorello used his state position to pocket $2,400 from Duquesne University for supervising pharmacy interns at state hospitals between 2000 and 2003, prosecutors said.

Fiorello was convicted of two felony conflict-of-interest charges and two misdemeanors last month, after a nonjury trial before Dauphin County Common Pleas Judge Richard Lewis.

Lewis also sentenced Fiorello to 250 hours of community service.

Fiorello paid more than $27,000 in civil fines after the state Ethics Commission cited him for ethics violations in connection with the same allegations in 2005.

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