Medical assistant forges 156 OxyContin prescriptions at 27 pharmacies

A 22-year-old Lake County woman was arrested for writing 156 fake prescriptions for OxyContin and selling the narcotic, according to the Lake County Narcotics Unit.

Investigators said Crystal Facemyer of Mentor stole the blank scripts from a heart doctor's office in Lake County and wrote fake prescriptions to get more than 9,000 pills.

Authorities said she then sold the pain pills for at least $15 each, sometimes higher amounts for a total of $75,000.  Police say drug addicts often crush and snort the pills or inject the narcotic like heroin.

According to investigators, Facemyer used the forged prescriptions to get the pills at 27 different pharmacies in Lake and Cuyahoga counties.

Chris Begley with the Lake County Narcotics Unit said Facemyer told him she was using the money to pay off her student loan for becoming a medical student and to help get a relative into rehab for a heroin addiction.  Begley said Facemyer used the names of 17 friends and relatives without their knowledge to get the fake prescriptions and that she got their birthdays from Facebook.

Published by NewsNet5