Prison pharmacists were paid 24/7, testimony shows (And not minimum wage either!)

The Fresno Bee ^ | 07/28/08 | Chris Collins

[Enterprise]

A pair of married contract pharmacists at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga persuaded their boss that they should be paid for working 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and the boss agreed, according to court testimony Monday during the couple's preliminary hearing.

[Enterprise]

"Besides her prison job, Rutan-Juliana worked full time from September 2004 to February 2007 at the state Department of Health Care Services -- which Virbel, the former special agent, said broke state law because she was receiving two salaries for the same job."

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Idiart said his clients did nothing wrong by accepting overtime pay.

I don’t see a crime here. Just gross incompetence by the people signing off on this, and run-amuck avarice on the pharmacists’ part.

Avarice is a sin, not necessarily a Crime.

[garyhope]

Let me guess which political party that they are affiliated with. Could it be,.......The DIMS?

[Enterprise]

While there may be a fraud involving collecting two checks, that is only a small part for which they are being investigated.

"Coalinga couple Ronald Juliana and Joyce Rutan-Juliana are facing 18 felony charges, including grand theft and perjury. Investigators also found more than 30,000 prescription drug pills -- in boxes, baggies and bottles -- in the couple's two homes."

[Enterprise]

I don’t know for sure if politics can be said to be involved here. The current Governor is Schwarzenegger. I think part of the problem was a stupid prison health administrator.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> “Coalinga couple Ronald Juliana and Joyce Rutan-Juliana are facing 18 felony charges, including grand theft and perjury.

I’m unsure about the laws in America, but to me there was nothing in the story that gave any support to “felony charges” (we don’t have the concept of “felony” vs “misdemeanor”, but even so...)

> Investigators also found more than 30,000 prescription drug pills — in boxes, baggies and bottles — in the couple’s two homes.”

This sorta points toward one plausible explanation — trafficking — but it can also point to another one: they are, after all, pharmacists, and perhaps they had a legal sideline business...?

[yorkie01]

Possibly any connection to the mexican drug cartels?

[DieHard the Hunter]

Mexican drug cartels would definitely cast a different complexion on the case. I hadn’t thought of that.

[sailor4321]

I have to think that the decision to put these people on OT would have been reviewed by the prison system personnel department, who evidently fail to understand the difference between “engaged to wait” vs. “waiting to be engaged” (very old and very well established “wage and hour” concepts).

However, having seen some of the stuff various California State personnel departments have signed off on, it really is no surprise to me that no-one blew the whistle...

[ridesthemiles]

I don’t know for sure if politics can be said to be involved here. The current Governor is Schwarzenegger. I think part of the problem was a stupid prison health administrator.”

This problem in the California prisons has a loooooonnng history.
It is the third rail of California politics to never talk ill of the prison system and it’s costs.

[Condor51]

I read and reread the article and besides the 30,000 pills found I don't see a "crime".

They presented their case to their boss for hourly OT pay and the boss agreed. If anything, the boss was stupid but stupid isn't a crime.

And if it was the entire US Congress would be in jail.