Former VA Employee Sentenced For Stealing From Prescriptions, Reports U.S. Attorney
BOSTON, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- A Lynn man was sentenced
today in federal court for stealing OxyContin and Percocet from prescriptions he
was preparing for mailing from the Veterans Affairs pharmacy in Bedford,
Massachusetts.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Bruce T.
Sackman, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Field Office of the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General, and John Duffey, Veterans
Affairs Police Chief, announced today that STEPHEN BASDEN, age 51, of 177
Fayette Street, Lynn, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge
Reginald C. Lindsay to one year of probation. BASDEN pleaded guilty to unlawful
possession of oxycodone and causing the misbranding of a drug label on December
5, 2001. Both charges are misdemeanors carrying a maximum term of one year
imprisonment, a $100,000 fine and one year of supervised release.
At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court
that had the case proceeded to trial the Government's evidence would have proven
that on a number of occasions in March and April 2001, BASDEN took tablets of
Percocet or OxyContin from prescriptions he was preparing for mailing from the
VA pharmacy in Bedford, Massachusetts. Percocet and OxyContin are brand names
for products containing oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance. BASDEN
was videotaped on ten occasions, during six different days, taking and pocketing
pills. The amounts ranged from one to nine pills per prescription. BASDEN was
confronted by law enforcement and admitted stealing the tablets for his own
use. He said his thefts increased after he had hip replacement surgery.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General, the Veterans Affairs Police, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra S. Bower in Sullivan's Health Care Fraud Unit.
SOURCE U.S. Attorney
CO: U.S. Attorney
ST: Massachusetts
IN:
SU: LAW
03/18/2002 15:20 EST http://www.prnewswire.com