By Sophia Voravong
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Ind.)
Copyright © 2007, Federated Publications, Inc.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. — A paramedic with Tippecanoe County Ambulance Service already charged with stealing medication from Lafayette hospitals is now accused of fraudulently refilling her neighbor’s prescription.
Charges were filed today in Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 against Gretchen J. Winger, 27, of Clarks Hill for possession of a controlled substance, a Class C felony, and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or deceit, a Class D felony.
The new charges stem from an unrelated report made Aug. 20 by an area pharmacist.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed with the charges, the neighbor told Detective Dan Shumaker of the Lafayette Police Department that Winger had been at his home and asked to use the bathroom.
That’s where he kept his hydrocodone pills, of which several were counted to be missing. Hydrocodone is a powerful prescription painkiller.
Winger is accused of calling in and picking up a refill prescription under her neighbor’s name without his permission.
The pharmacy became suspicious because Winger had been arrested in July, accused of pretending to be an employee at an actual doctor’s office to call in a prescription for hydrocodone tablets at the same business.
Similar charges were filed last week in Tippecanoe Superior Court 1.
Winger also is accused of using her employer-provided access code to steal morphine and diazepam syringes from locked bins at St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Home Hospital.
She is charged in Tippecanoe Circuit Court with theft, possession of a controlled substance and four counts of possession of a narcotic drug in that case.
A home telephone listing could not be found to reach Winger for comment.