(WHAS11) - Five people, including a Kentucky state worker, were arrested at a Louisville pharmacy after police say they traveled more than 1,500 miles to get prescriptions for powerful painkillers.
The Eastern Kentucky residents were arrested in Lousiville over the weekend, trying to pass prescriptions they received in Jacksonville, Florida.
That Florida road trip ended at a CVS Pharmacy on Taylorsville Road, 100 miles from the 295-person town of Sharpsburg, Kentucky where Keith Markland, Patricia Stacey, Angela Hedges, David Bascon and Michael Skeens live. But it was a whole lot closer to home than where the group made a joint visit to the doctor late last week.
They traveled 740 miles each way to Jacksonville, Florida to visit "Liberty Medical Group," a pain clinic where you can book an appointment on a 24 hour hotline, but you'd better have cash to pay, since the clinic doesn't accept insurance.
The group from Sharpsburg was seeking Oxycontin, a high-powered painkiller normally used to treat pain in terminally ill cancer patients.
Police say Kentucky residents often head to the Sunshine State since Florida doesn't have a statewide narcotics reporting system to keep track of which and how many doctors patients see.
“A group will go up in a van or a car,” said Sgt. John McGuire of the Louisville Metro Police Narcotics Unit. “They'll get to Florida, go to pain clinics that are typically known for... I'll call it, right now, questionable prescribing.”
According to her arrest report, Angela Hedges, an accountant for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, organized the trip. She allegedly provided the van and paid $250 each for the patients' exams.
In exchange, police say Hedges was given half of the pills.
According to reports, the five patients each obtained four 30-pill prescriptions for Oxycontin, which they tried to pass at the CVS before the cops showed up.
“Anytime somebody comes from another state to fill a prescription, it at least causes some alarm or draws attention,” said Sgt. McGuire.
The Liberty Medical Group in Florida has a crowded parking lot and an armed guard in the front. When our sister station in Jacksonville tried to ask the doctor who allegedly wrote the prescriptions about it, she would not do an on camera interview, but said she didn't remember the patients.
That doctor, Susan Kopitnik, has never been disciplined in the state of Florida and is also the owner of a drug treatment center in Jacksonville.
When WHAS11 called the Liberty Medical Group main number, the voice mailbox was full. We asked their 24-hour answering service to have someone from the practice contact us, but they did not reach us by our deadline.
Police say Hedges stood to profit $9,600 from the trip. The case has now been referred to the D.E.A..
