Pubdate: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 Source: Kingsport Times-News (TN) Copyright: 2002 Kingsport Publishing Corporation Contact: http://www.timesnews.net/index.cgi Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1437 Note: Will not publish letters in print editions from online users who do not reside in print circulation area, unless they are former residents or have some current connection to Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. Author: Matthew Lane FORMER AMBULANCE SERVICE EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO PRESCRIPTION FRAUD BLOUNTVILLE -- Assistant District Attorney Gene Perrin said he is going to ask that the maximum prison sentence be given to a Kingsport man who obtained or attempted to obtain pain medication fraudulently on at least 11 separate occasions. Michael Todd Hartsock, 29, 1018 Borden St., pleaded guilty in Sullivan County Criminal Court on Monday to 11 counts of fraudulently obtaining or attempting to obtain a controlled substance and two counts of theft under $500. Perrin said that from Oct. 12, 2000, until Jan. 5, 2002, Hartsock used forged prescriptions created on a personal computer to obtain Oxycodone and Hydrocodone from area pharmacies. Perrin said the two pain medications have a street value of approximately $1 per milligram. Hartsock, a former employee of Medic One Ambulance Service in Weber City, used at least eight different doctors' names, six different patients' names, and went to eight different pharmacies during the 15-month period. "They were computer-generated prescriptions, and he was using various names, going to different pharmacies, and passing fraudulently produced prescriptions or calling in to a pharmacy and pretending to be a doctor," Perrin said. "He just created havoc." Hartsock faces nine years in prison, six years on supervised probation, and an $1,100 fine. Perrin said the prison time Hartsock faces has to run consecutively because of how the law reads. "There were five episodes of crimes - or four separate occasions where he would be out on bond for one felony and then commit another," Perrin said. "Because of that, the law states the sentences have to run consecutively." Hartsock is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on May 13, where Judge Jerry Beck could impose a maximum prison sentence of nine years. Perrin said that is what he is going to ask for. "It's our position that he needs to serve the whole nine years," Perrin said. "Because of his prior record, because he's wanted in Hawkins County and Scott County, Virginia, and based on the sheer number of cases." Perrin said Hartsock's previous record includes soliciting to obtain a controlled substance by fraud in 1999 and theft of property over $1,000 in 1992. Monday's plea "wraps up all of the charges in Sullivan County," Perrin said. However, according to court records, Hartsock was charged earlier this month by the Church Hill Police Department with two counts of prescription fraud. According to police, on Oct. 12 Hartsock entered Church Hill Pharmacy in his EMS uniform with a forged prescription and obtained 90 tablets of the painkiller Lortab. He allegedly told pharmacy employees he was picking up the medication for a patient. On Nov. 5, Hartsock allegedly entered the same pharmacy with a prescription forged from the same doctor's office and attempted to obtain 50 tablets of the painkiller Percocet. When pharmacy employees recognized the prescription did not have proper security markings and began to call the doctor, Hartsock reportedly fled the store. Church Hill police issued an arrest warrant for Hartsock after the second incident, and that warrant was served by Sullivan County deputies days later as Hartsock was leaving a courtroom in Blountville. Hartsock was later indicted on four counts of prescription fraud in Scott County for allegedly trying to have four forged prescriptions for the pain medications Tylox and Lortab filled at three Scott County pharmacies. Hartsock is scheduled to stand trial in Hawkins County Circuit Court on Thursday. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl