State v. Wade

467 So. 2d 1195, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 8565
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 3, 1985
DocketNo. 16817-KA
StatusPublished

This text of 467 So. 2d 1195 (State v. Wade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wade, 467 So. 2d 1195, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 8565 (La. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

SEXTON, Judge.

The defendant was charged by bill of information with two counts of attempting to obtain a controlled dangerous substance, Preludin, by fraud. Subsequent to a jury trial, the defendant was acquitted on count one and was found guilty on count two. On October 28, 1983, the defendant was sentenced to two and one-half years at hard labor to run consecutively with any other sentence which the defendant might be serving. The defendant appeals this conviction and sentence contending that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction, and that the sentence imposed is excessive. Finding merit in the defendant’s first assignment, we reverse and pretermit assignment number two.

On February 10, 1981, while in the custody of the Ruston Police Department for another offense, the defendant was taken to the offices of Dr. Alan Herbert in Ru-ston complaining of headaches. While waiting to be examined, the defendant was alone in one of the examining rooms which contained blank prescription pads. After the examination of the defendant, Dr. Her[1196]*1196bert issued a prescription to the defendant for the drug Flexeril and the defendant departed.

On February 13, 1981, a man entered Brazzel’s Pharmacy in Ruston and presented a prescription for Preludin.1 The prescription contained the name of Dr. Herbert and was for thirty tablets. The pharmacist, Mr. Brazzel, refused to fill this prescription because he felt the signature of the doctor was a forgery. However, Mr. Brazzel made a photocopy of the prescription and the defendant left without further incident. Mr. Brazzel notified the police.

Later that same day, February 13, 1981, a single male entered Cale’s Pharmacy in Ruston and presented a prescription for thirty tablets of Preludin. The pharmacist, Michelle Cale, believed the signature of Dr. Herbert on the prescription to be a forgery and declined to fill the prescription. At that point, the person left and Ms. Cale notified the police of the incident. Cale’s Pharmacy is located directly across the street from Dr. Herbert’s office and Dr. Herbert’s nurse, Dede Cantrell, witnessed the person in Cale’s Pharmacy and identified him as Lawrence Wade.

In defendant’s original assignment of error in which we find merit, the defendant contends that when viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the evidence is insufficient for a rational trier of fact to conclude that the essential elements of the offense were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The statute the defendant was convicted of violating, LSA-R.S. 40:971 B(l)(b), states:

B. (1) It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally:
(b) to acquire or obtain possession of a controlled dangerous substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge....

Thus, the state must show that the defendant was the man who presented the prescription, that the prescription was fraudulent and that the defendant knew that the prescription was fraudulent.

In order to review this assignment, it will be necessary to summarize the pertinent evidence in some detail. Dr. Alan Herbert testified that his records revealed that he did treat the defendant and that the signature on the prescription which Mr. Brazzel copied was not his. The doctor further testified that he could not state whether or not he had ever treated a Joe Ann White, the name on the prescription which was copied by Mr. Brazzel.

The state’s next witness was Ms. Dede Cantrell, Dr. Herbert’s nurse and lab technician. Ms. Cantrell testified that she saw the defendant in Dr. Herbert’s office on February 10, 1981, when he was given tablets of the muscle relaxer, Flexeril. He was not given a prescription for Preludin. Ms. Cantrell stated that anyone left in an examining room of the office had access to blank prescription pads. Ms. Cantrell also testified that she was not sure if she knew Joe Ann White.

Ms. Cantrell confirmed that the signature on S-l was not that of Dr. Herbert. Ms. Cantrell also testified that the defendant came to the doctor’s office on February 13th seeking a refill of the prescription for Flexiril. Ms. Cantrell stated that this could not be given to the defendant because the doctor was out of town, and that the defendant left in a black and red sports car. Ms. Cantrell further stated that she saw the defendant at Cale’s Pharmacy across the street at approximately four o’clock p.m., two hours after the defendant had sought the prescription refill from Dr. Herbert’s office. She further testified that Dr. Herbert usually prescribed only seven or fourteen tablets of Preludin and that she [1197]*1197had never seen him prescribe as many as thirty. Finally, Ms. Cantrell testified that there was a woman in the defendant’s car when the defendant came to Dr. Herbert’s office and when he went to Cale’s Pharmacy. Ms. Cantrell stated that she could not identify the woman.

The next witness called for the state was Albert Brazzel, the pharmacist who reported the incident which led to the first count being brought against the defendant. Mr. Brazzel could not identify the defendant as the person who brought in the prescription. Mr. Brazzel testified that the signature on S-l was not, in his opinion, that of Dr. Herbert. Mr. Brazzel testified that Dr. Herbert’s prescriptions for Preludin are either for seven or fourteen tablets and that he has never known Dr. Herbert to prescribe thirty.

The state then called Michelle Cale, the pharmacist who reported the incident which led to the second count against the defendant. Ms. Cale adamantly testified that the defendant brought in a forged prescription for Preludin. She stated that she was of the belief the prescription was forged because the signature was not that of Dr. Herbert, for whom she had been filling prescriptions regularly for three years. She also stated that she did not “think” that she had ever seen a prescription from Dr. Herbert for as many as thirty tablets of Preludin. She stated that when she refused to fill the prescription, she gave the prescription back to the defendant. She stated he “kinda hurried” to a black and red sports car containing a woman and left.

Ms. Cale stated that she was “about 99.9% sure” that the defendant was the man who brought in the prescription in question. She also stated that she did not remember who the prescription was for, only that it was in a woman’s name and not the defendant’s name. Ms. Cale was not shown S-l, the prescription copied by Mr. Brazzel, and thus she did not testify as to whether that prescription was the same one she received from the defendant.

Sue Harrington, an employee of Braz-zel’s Pharmacy, also testified.

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
State v. Scott
456 So. 2d 1383 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
467 So. 2d 1195, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 8565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wade-lactapp-1985.