SULPHUR, OK - Charges have been filed against several Sulphur nursing home employees for illegally obtaining and diverting prescription medication.

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward says the charges stem from a joint investigation that began in January involving OBN, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, the Sulphur Police Department, and the Murray County Sheriff’s Department.

“During an audit, information surfaced that over 9,000 dosage units of controlled substances had been diverted by employees of the Callaway Nursing home in Sulphur. Over 8,400 of the dosage units involved the pain medication Hydrocodone,” Woodward said.

Woodward says employees would use their position of phoning legitimate prescriptions authorized by doctors to call in fraudulent prescriptions of Hydrocodone for residents of the nursing home.

“These residents had not been prescribed the Hydrocodone by doctors. There is no evidence that any resident was deprived of their legitimate medications. Evidence suggests some of the employees would personally use small amounts of the diverted medication, but the majority of the fraudulent drugs were sold on the streets of Sulphur.”

The Murray County District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against six people. Warrants were issued for Jackie Allen Alexander, 63, Director of Nursing at Callaway for Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances by Fraud; Melanie A. Kirby, 39, Assistant Director of Nursing for Callaway, for Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances by Fraud; Carrie Billings, 41, for Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances and Medicaid Fraud; Sierra D. Williams, 23, for Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances by Fraud and Medicaid Fraud; Mackenzie Digby, 30, for Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances by Fraud and Medicaid Fraud; and Angela Ford, 33 for Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances by Fraud.

We'll have more on this tonight on First News.

Information from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics