Published: September 16, 2008 10:49 pm            

Nurse arrested in drug fraud case

Prison employee charged with forgery and theft of meds

BUNKER HILL — State police arrested a Miami Correctional Facility nurse Tuesday on charges that she forged inmates’ drug prescriptions.

Detective Mike Tarrh of the Peru Post said a warrant was served on Belinda M. Slone, 43, at her Peru home without incident.

She faces four counts each of forgery and theft and is being held in the Miami County jail on a $44,000 surety bond.

Tarrh started the weeklong investigation after being contacted by an internal affairs officer for the Miami Correctional Facility.

Prison officials had noticed alleged forged signatures on some of the prison’s Controlled Substance Perpetual Inventory Usage Records. Each inmate is assigned an IUR, which is used to account for any medication dispensed by the prison’s medical staff to a particular inmate.

Tarrh’s investigation revealed that Slone allegedly, on four separate occasions, forged the signature of another staff member on the IUR of different inmates. Slone indicated on the IUR that prescription pills were destroyed or dispensed to an inmate. The forged medication purportedly had not been dispensed as indicated.

The investigation also revealed that Slone allegedly removed two Prozac pills from a prison medication stock cart for her personal use.

        

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