Prescription Fraud

A Glen Burnie woman who tried to obtain oxycodone with a stolen prescription has been charged with fraud. Christina Marie Rodgers, 30, of the 100 block Oak Springs Drive, faces numerous fraud offenses and theft under $100. Staff at the pharmacy in the 300 block Hospital Drive in Glen Burnie called police June 27, when the suspect presented a stolen prescription for 60 tablets of the narcotic. Police discovered several other stolen prescriptions in the suspect's possession as well as six tablets, thought to be fraudulently obtained oxycodone, police said.

A Glen Burnie woman who tried to obtain oxycodone with a stolen prescription has been charged with fraud. Christina Marie Rodgers, 30, of the 100 block Oak Springs Drive, faces numerous fraud offenses and theft under $100. Staff at the pharmacy in the 300 block Hospital Drive in Glen Burnie called police June 27, when the suspect presented a stolen prescription for 60 tablets of the narcotic. Police discovered several other stolen prescriptions in the suspect's possession as well as six tablets, thought to be fraudulently obtained oxycodone, police said.

A 30-year-old courier for a Severna Park denture supplycompany, charged Monday with forging a prescription from an area dentist, was released on her personal recognizance yesterday by a District Court judge.Mary Lee Little of the 400 block of Quiet Hollow Court, Glen Burnie, was charged with one count of attempting to obtain a controlled dangerous substance by fraud, theft and misrepresentation.She also was charged in warrants with failure to appear in court and failure to obey a court order on unrelated charges.

In Baltimore City Low blood supplies could force changes in surgery schedules Critically low blood supplies could force 80 regional hospitals to alter surgical schedules, the Baltimore-based Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Region of the American Red Cross said this week. Because of recent inclement weather that has hampered donor turnout and the typically low donations during the holiday season, the Red Cross said, it has been unable to collect enough blood to meet patient needs. To give blood, donors must be in good health, must weigh no less than 110 pounds, must not have donated whole blood within the preceding 56 days or received a tattoo within the past year, and must be at least 17 years old (16 with parental consent)

A Baltimore County doctor was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with prescription fraud after a six-month investigation by Anne Arundel County narcotics detectives.Dr. Nathaniel Aikins-Afful, 58, of the 3700 block of Collier Road in Randallstown was charged with conspiring to distribute Percocet with a Baltimore man and a Bel Air man, and with two counts of failure to keep and furnish medical records as required by law, police said.He was released after his daughter posted bail for him, a spokesman for the court commissioner's office in Glen Burnie said yesterday afternoon.

A University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon has been charged with prescription drug fraud arising from a case that police say may involve as many as 100 forged prescriptions for two drugs, including the painkiller OxyContin. Dr. John Flowers, a general surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and his wife, Cindy, are accused of writing - and getting filled - prescriptions for OxyContin and the weight therapy drug Phentermine when they weren't needed for medical reasons, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday.

County police arrested a doctor with offices in Pasadena on charges of prescription fraud after an investigation sparked by a tipster who said the doctor was using a former patient's name to get painkillers and a sedative.Dr. Sol Witriol, 57, whose offices are in the 8000 block of Ritchie Highway, was charged in a criminal summons with prescription fraud and illegal possession of prescription drugs.Police were told last week that the doctor allegedly was obtaining prescriptions for Roxicet, Fioricet and Donnatal in the name of a former patient.

A man charged with forging prescriptions at a Glen Burnie pharmacy is part of a three-person team suspected in dozens of similar cases in Carroll, Baltimore and Prince George's counties, police said yesterday.Harold Brian Firor, 35, of Reisterstown, was arrested in Anne Arundel County on Monday after he tried to pass a forged prescription for Percodan and penicillin at the F & M Pharmacy on Ritchie Highway, police said.Anne Arundel police charged Mr. Firor with five counts of prescription fraud, theft and other related drug charges.

When it comes to spotting inconsistencies in the loops an curves of doctors' signatures, and other telltale signs of prescription fraud in the county, Howard County Detective David J. Trapani is the man.Since August 1990, the detective has acted as the county's first and only full-time pharmaceutical fraud investigator.The one-man pharmaceutical diversion unit has so far netted 165 arrests and a conviction rate near 100 percent, Detective Trapani said. Almost half of the arrests were made in the first 10 months of this year.

Woman pleads guilty to prescription fraud, gets probation Described as having had a $200,000-a-year drug addiction, the estranged wife of a former University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of prescription fraud in exchange for three years of supervised probation and drug treatment. The plea in county Circuit Court by Cindy Flowers, 45, of Severn comes about a month after her estranged husband, Dr. John Lee Flowers, was placed on probation for writing hundreds of fake prescriptions for painkillers and diet pills for her. He was forced to resign from his job. Judge Joseph P. Manck sentenced Cindy Flowers to a two- year term and suspended it for probation.

Woman pleads guilty to prescription fraud, gets probation Described as having had a $200,000-a-year drug addiction, the estranged wife of a former University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of prescription fraud in exchange for three years of supervised probation and drug treatment. The plea in county Circuit Court by Cindy Flowers, 45, of Severn comes about a month after her estranged husband, Dr. John Lee Flowers, was placed on probation for writing hundreds of fake prescriptions for painkillers and diet pills for her. He was forced to resign from his job. Judge Joseph P. Manck sentenced Cindy Flowers to a two- year term and suspended it for probation.

A former University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon was placed on probation yesterday for prescription drug fraud, and the sentencing judge told him he found the doctor's situation "a tragedy unlike one I have seen in a while." John Lee Flowers, 44, of Towson was forced to resign his job, faces the prospect of losing his medical license and has separated from his wife, Cindy Flowers, for whom he illegally prescribed painkillers and diet pills. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul A. Hackner ordered a six-month suspended sentence, placed Flowers on one-year of probation and fined him $1,000.

A University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon who was placed on administrative leave last week after being charged with illegally prescribing painkillers and diet pills was disciplined for similar misconduct in the late 1980s, state medical records show. Anne Arundel County police charged Dr. John L. Flowers, 43, of Severn this month with writing prescriptions for his wife and other nonpatients for drugs such as OxyContin and Phentermine. Police say Flowers had likely written about 100 prescriptions for the drugs during the past year and a half.

A University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon has been charged with prescription drug fraud arising from a case that police say may involve as many as 100 forged prescriptions for two drugs, including the painkiller OxyContin. Dr. John Flowers, a general surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and his wife, Cindy, are accused of writing - and getting filled - prescriptions for OxyContin and the weight therapy drug Phentermine when they weren't needed for medical reasons, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday.

County police arrested a doctor with offices in Pasadena on charges of prescription fraud after an investigation sparked by a tipster who said the doctor was using a former patient's name to get painkillers and a sedative.Dr. Sol Witriol, 57, whose offices are in the 8000 block of Ritchie Highway, was charged in a criminal summons with prescription fraud and illegal possession of prescription drugs.Police were told last week that the doctor allegedly was obtaining prescriptions for Roxicet, Fioricet and Donnatal in the name of a former patient.

Natural Resources police searched without success yesterday for a 39-year-old Severna Park man who was thrown from a 23-foot speed boat Sunday as it bounced through the wake of a passing boat at about 70 mph near the mouth of Stony Creek.Mark C. Linton, a passenger in the high-performance boat, was missing and presumed drowned.His father, Lloyd E. Linton Jr., 65, of Pasadena, who was at the helm of the Scarab boat, was treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and released.The Scarab was heading out of the creek shortly after 8 p.m. when it crossed the wake of an in-bound cabin cruiser and briefly went airborne.