A Clinton City Schools teacher has been suspended with pay pending an investigation into allegations that she fraudulently obtained prescription medications from one local pharmacy and attempted to get other meds from a second.
Kristy Daniel Carter, 33, of 303 Halifax St., Clinton, is facing six felony charges associated with the allegations. She was arrested Tuesday morning by Clinton police and charged with three felony counts of trafficking opiates and three felony counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
School officials said that Carter, an English teacher since 2008, first at Clinton High and later with the city system’s alternative program, has been suspended pending the investigation. Because it is a personnel matter, no further information could be provided by the school system.
Carter’s arrest came on the heels of an investigation which began April 30 following a call to police from Dr. Troyon’s office regarding someone pretending to be one of the physician’s nurses phoning in a prescription to Clinton Drug.
Reports show the caller identified herself to a Clinton Drug employee as Dr. Troyon’s nurse and requested a prescription for Vicodin be filled for Carter’s husband.
Assistant police chief Donald Edwards said that because the pharmacy employee knew the nurse’s voice and realized immediately that the person on the telephone was not who they claimed to be, she called Troyon’s office and the doctor, in turn, alerted law enforcement.
That prescription was not filled and, reports show, when Kristy Carter arrived at Clinton Drug to pick up medication for her husband, she was told there were no new prescriptions there.
“During that investigation, we learned that a female had made a similar call to Rite Aid claiming to be Dr. Huff’s nurse and requesting a prescription for Vicodin be filled for Kristy Carter,” Edwards said. “That was on May 6.”
Again, an alert pharmacy employee alerted Dr. Huff’s office and police, noting that they, too, didn’t recognize the female voice as the person she was claiming to be.
Edwards said officers set up surveillance at the drug store. Kristy Carter was stopped after she was observed at Rite Aid picking up the medication. Sixty dosage units of Vicodin was seized during the stop and Carter was taken into custody and charged.
She was placed under a $35,000 unsecured bond and released later in the day.
“Without question, I have to give credit to the staff at the drug stores for detecting something wasn’t right in these incidents and alerting us to that fact,” Edwards said. “They are to be commended for their quick actions. The fact that they know personnel at local doctor’s offices and immediately recognized that something wasn’t right is commendable, and the fact that they communicated among themselves, and with us, about the unusual circumstances made the difference.”
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