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LUCERNE, Calif. – A Lake County Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force investigation into multiple forgeries and fraudulent purchases of prescription medications has led to the arrest of a 33 year old Lucerne woman.
Erica Ray Rouse, 33, was arrested and booked at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility on felony charges of forging or altering a prescription, counterfeiting a prescription blank, forgery and violation of probation, according to Capt. James Bauman.
On Tuesday morning, May 3, narcotics detectives contacted staff at the Kmart pharmacy in Lakeport to investigate a report that multiple medications had been filled by the use of fraudulent prescriptions, Bauman said.
After talking to pharmacy staff and examining their records, detectives determined that as many as 10 prescriptions for the pain medications Ultram and Tramadol, and the antiseizure medication Lorazepam, had been filled for a woman identified as Rouse, according to Bauman.
He said Rouse had allegedly been purchasing the medications from the pharmacy since November of 2010.
When detectives examined the prescriptions used to dispense the medications, they found Rouse had allegedly not only used her own name to obtain the prescriptions, but she is also alleged to have forged several different names on the prescriptions and the prescriptions themselves were counterfeit, Bauman said.
Bauman said narcotics detectives learned that Rouse was on formal felony probation for a prior welfare fraud conviction. At approximately 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, they went to her home in Lucerne to conduct a probation search relating to their investigation.
During their search, detectives located and recovered multiple prescription bottles matching the medications fraudulently purchased at the Kmart pharmacy. Bauman said detectives also located and seized blank counterfeit prescriptions that had apparently been fabricated by use of a computer.
Narcotics detectives continued their investigation on Wednesday morning and contacted pharmacy staff at the CVS drug store in Lakeport, Bauman said. After examining their records, detectives determined Rouse had made at least five additional purchases of the same medications by forging counterfeit prescriptions.
Bauman said the case is pending further investigation and contact with other Lake County pharmacies to determine if Rouse has forged any additional prescriptions.
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