Nurse accepts plea deal in forged prescription case

A nurse in St. Joseph County accepted a plea agreement and has been sentenced for forging prescriptions for legend drugs, according to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office.

Richard Charles Blake pleaded guilty to one count of forging prescriptions for legend drugs and the other five counts of forging prescriptions for legend drugs were dismissed.

Blake was sentenced to one year of work release with 13 days of credit.

He also must pay $200 in fines.

The St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office filed charges against Blake in January 2016.

The investigation into Blake began when St. Joseph County Police responded to a CVS in November 2015.

Police said a customer was attempting to fill two prescriptions, one for Vicodin and one for Adderall.

After contacting the doctor's office listed on the prescription, Beacon Kidney and Hypertension, informed police they didn't have a patient by the name of the female customer.

When police questioned her, she told police she got the prescriptions from nurse Richard Blake who worked at Beacon Kidney, according to police.

She told police Blake gave her the prescriptions and she was supposed to fill them and then give the pills to Blake. He paid her cash to do it, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Officers spoke with the doctors who worked at Beacon Kidney and they said they rarely write prescriptions and never write prescriptions for narcotics in such large quantities of pills because they can damage the kidneys.

Investigators then searched the online database of prescriptions and discovered several other suspicious prescriptions.

They located two of the people who had filled the suspicious prescriptions, according to police.

One of the men told police he got the prescriptions from a nurse named "Rick" at Beacon Kidney. He told police Rick offered to write prescriptions for him if he could find someone to fill them and give half of the pills back to Rick, according to the affidavit.

He told police he got a friend to fill two of the prescriptions.

He said he got a third prescription in his own name and filled it himself, according to police.

Blake's nursing license is under emergency suspension.