Posted on 03/25/2011 7:16:56 PM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
AUBURN, NY--A 56-year-old grandmother spent a weekend in the Cayuga County Jail after a doctor made an error on a drug prescription.
Defense attorney Charles Thomas said Auburn police charged Patricia Rigdon with possessing a forged prescription on March 11, but it turned out that the prescription called for too many pills because a doctor had made a mistake.
Thomas said the felony charge was dismissed Wednesday because of that mistake.
Rigdon said a police officer approached her in Kinney Drugs in Auburn while she waited for the pharmacist to fill a prescription for her husband and accused her of giving the pharmacist a forged prescription.
Rigdon denied the accusation and told the officer to talk to her husband’s doctor to confirm the mistake. The pharmacist told the officer that the doctor had made mistakes on prescriptions in the past, Rigdon said, but that police didn’t check with the doctor.
“If the police officer who arrested me had called the doctor, he would have found it was an error on the doctor’s part,” Rigdon said. “We could have resolved it right then and there.”
Instead, Rigdon was taken to the Auburn Police Department where she was arraigned and remanded to the Cayuga County Jail without bail for the weekend.
Rigdon said she refused to sign a confession that police requested and that her experience behind bars terrified her.
Rigdon, a diabetic, also said she believed the medical treatment she received for her blood sugar was inadequate.
“When people talk about how bad jail is, it is really that bad, they are not exaggerating,” Rigdon said. “If anything, it’s worse.”
Rigdon said she was relieved when she found out the charges were going to be dismissed and said she accepted an apology from Auburn city Judge Thomas Shamon, but added she was disappointed in the officer’s treatment.
Rigdon said she intends to talk to an attorney about her experience.
“When I heard that the charges were going to be dismissed, all I could think was ’Thank you God for looking over my shoulder,’” Rigdon said. “After I got off the phone with my attorney, I cried.”
Officials with the Auburn Police Department and the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office were not available for comment Thursday.
Bingo!
Whoever called the cops better have lots of liability insurance.
Pharmacist pro’ly had to call because of sting ops that would have landed HIM in jail. Failure all around, the cop, the judge at the bail hearing, the DA. I’d sue for a zillion dollars or that all those folks spent the same amount of time behind bars. Seems fair.
I wonder how much she had to pay the lawyer, and what would have happened to someone who couldn't afford an attorney?
The reason I say this is, years ago, something like this happened to my family, and we were fortunate to know an attorney who helped us pro bono. I still remember the DA’s assistant looking down at the folder, at the attorney letter, asking, “Why did you get a lawyer?” She treated us totally differently after that, a little more carefully.
Two weeks later we got a letter saying charges were being dismissed.
We like to make fun of lawyers on FR, but it is an honorable profession, when practiced by good people. A shame the police didn't have the same level of professionalism.
Beauracratic reporting requirements have nothing to do with common sense. They must be followed. See Tag line
My guess is the pharmacist on the counter was low man on the totem pole. He probably had strict instructions to call the police for such by higher ups in order to protect the store from DEA hassles.
Beauracratic reporting requirements have nothing to do with common sense. They must be followed. See Tag line
“...a police officer approached her in Kinney Drugs in Auburn while she waited for the pharmacist to fill a prescription for her husband...”
So WHO called the cops and WHY?
IF the pharmacist had a problem, it is HIS JOB to call the Doc, NOT a COP!!!
That was my thought too. There is more than meets the eye here.
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/florida-governor-pardons-richard-paey/
The case I mentioned. From what I remember, the reason he went to jail is that the doctor didn’t want to admit he wrote for that many pills (which I understand) so the patient was left trying to defend why he had so many. I’m not sure of that, though.
I get 2 narcotic prescriptions every month. I will be checking them closer before I give them to the pharmacist to make sure there are no errors.
Amen./Brother/Sister
Exactly. I thought something was missing from the story as well. In AR, pharmacies usually call the physician to verify schedule 2 prescriptions (if that was what it was for - I would imagine it was because I couldn't imagine the police getting involved in a forged Crestor or Lipitor prescription). Either the pharmacist or the pharm. tech had to have called the police without calling the physician first. Idiots!
She rich - or soon will be.
How did officer what’s-iz-name know anything unless the pharmacist drew it to his attention??
That was minor by comparison.
I don’t think the story you cite was totally unreasonable. When cops are stretched thinly, and so many have been shot recently, and someone appears to be a possible suspect, and that someone is 6’6” with dreadlocks, and he’s in a likely place to be looking for the suspect, this may not have been totally out of line. I’ve seen much, much worse.
And heavens knows a lot of sports “heroes” commit serious criminal acts.
If this was the worse thing a cop ever did, I’d be happy.
Those were the exact questions that I had when I read the story. Who called the cops? The story also says that the pharmacist told the cop that this particular doctor has made mistakes in the past. Hmmm.
The victim is a diabetic, and as such she is in constant, life-long need for supplies and very specific drugs. She probably had hundreds of visits to the pharmacy before this happened.
Theoretically it might be that she shopped just this one time in a different pharmacy. But people are creatures of habit.
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