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| Prescription drug fraud charges filed against four |
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Posted: Wednesday, August 8, 2012 9:05 pm
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Four people were charged in connection with alleged prescription drug fraud after Union City police responded to a Crime Stoppers tip.
Arrested in the incident were Joseph Ford, 40, of 1013 Nevel St., Union City; Barbie Sharp, 36, of 2393 Marvin Vaught Road, Troy; Brian Willis, 32, of 1416 Shatz Road, Union City; and Ralph Bing, also of 1013 Nevel St., Union City.
Warrants were obtained charging Ford with possession with intent to sell Schedule II and Schedule IV, possession of Schedule IV, possession of drug paraphernalia, conspiracy to commit obtaining a prescription by fraud and forgery, according to Union City Police Department investigator Derrick O’Dell.
Ms. Sharp was charged with tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit obtaining a prescription by fraud, while Willis was charged with conspiracy to commit obtaining a prescription by fraud and Bing with obtaining a prescription by fraud.
O’Dell said police received a Crime Stoppers tip July 26 alleging Ford, Bing and Willis were at 1013 Nevel St. and were in possession of forged prescriptions and narcotics. He said it’s a multiple dwelling and water department records listed Ford as the resident of the south apartment.
While checking Ford for a criminal record, O’Dell found he was currently on parole for drug charges after 2009 and he went to the residence to investigate the allegation.
Under the terms of Ford’s parole, he and his residence are subject to a search at any time, according to O’Dell, who conducted a search of the residence. Police said while Ford was being searched, he emptied his pockets and pulled a used hypodermic needle from his shorts. He was taken into custody for possession of drug paraphernalia.
During a search of the bedroom occupied by Ford, police found a piece of luggage which was more than three-quarters full of prescription form paper, O’Dell said.
“This paper is used to print prescriptions by a doctor. The fronts of the pages were blank,” the investigator reported.
Police also found a white plastic bag which contained empty pill bottles with Ford’s name on them. In the same bag were two pill bottles with the name labels ripped off. One bottle was larger than the other and the larger of the two had no identifying print on it and contained 22 Loritab 10 milligram hydrocodone pills. The smaller of the bottles contained nine Xanax® bars, three alprolazam tablets and a peach-colored partial unknown pill.
A search of Ford’s dresser revealed two glass drug pipes in cigar containers and a search of a trash can in the bedroom revealed wadded-up pieces of paper with writing on them. The writing appeared to be a drug ledger and a practice sheet of forged signatures of a doctor, according to O’Dell.
A syringe was also found in the trash and a pill bottle label was stuck to the side of the trash liner.
Police reported two other bags of empty prescription bottles were found in the dresser in Ford’s name and another man’s name. O’Dell also found five prescription receipts and one bottle label in four other people’s names. The medications listed included hydrocodone, alprazolam, morphine and oxycodone, all filled in July at four different pharmacies in Dyersburg.
O’Dell said during an interview Ford confessed to using the prescription paper to obtain narcotic prescriptions and that the prescriptions were created and printed on a computer owned by Ms. Sharp. He claimed he would take the papers to Ms. Sharp and she would create the prescription for a certain drug with a made-up name and using a doctor’s name. The prescriptions would then be passed at different pharmacies by different people.
During the interview, Ford implicated Bing in passing the prescriptions and he claimed the pills were divided in thirds between him, Ms. Sharp and whoever passed the script. He allegedly admitted to giving Bing a forged prescription to pass on July 26 and said he gave Bing the money to pay for the prescription.
Bing was arrested that same day for passing the prescription at Super D Drugs, according to O’Dell.
Ford claimed to have prescriptions for the pills in the bottles without labels and allegedly admitted to not having a prescription for the Xanax or alprazolam. O’Dell said it was unclear if he actually had a prescription for hydrocodone in the larger bottle.
Due to Ford’s implicating Ms. Sharp, Willis and Bing as being involved, O’Dell also interviewed them.
O’Dell said Bing confessed to passing the prescription at Super D and alleged Ford gave him the prescription. Bing also told police he had passed other prescriptions for Ford and claimed Ms. Sharp was printing the scripts at her house in the county.
In her interview, Ms. Sharp allegedly confessed to allowing her computer to be used to create and print the forged scripts and to receiving some pills. She claimed Bing, Ford and Willis all came to her house and they would make up names and print off prescriptions which were passed in Dyersburg and Ridgely using the doctor’s name, according to O’Dell’s report.
Ms. Sharp told police she destroyed her computer and threw it in a dump area on a thickly-wooded hill on her property the day Ford was arrested after allegedly receiving a call from Willis.
O’Dell said during Willis’ interview, he implicated himself with being involved in the conspiracy, indicating he went with Ford and Bing to Ms. Sharp’s residence several times when the prescriptions were made. He also claimed he went with Ford and Bing on at least two occasions when prescriptions were passed and that he received pills from Ford after they obtained the prescriptions, according to the report. |
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