Bradenton Psychologist Arrested For Providing Pills To Inmates

A licensed psychologist from Bradenton has been arrested for illegally providing drugs to an inmate at the Sarasota County Jail.

A detective had observed that Holli Bodner, 51, of the 7300 block of Kensington Court, Bradenton, agreed to supply an inmate with Oxycodone and Lorazepam during pre-arranged visits at the jail, according to an affidavit.

As a psychologist, Bodner could not even write prescriptions, and she was not writing prescriptions either, according to Wendy Rose, community affairs manager for the sheriff's office.

Detectives from the sheriff's office monitored four occasions in December when Bodner met with and supplied an inmate with narcotics, the sheriff's office said. Detectives recovered the drugs from the inmate immediately after each meeting.

During one visit that was recorded, Bodner reached into her bra and pulled out a small envelope that had four 15-mg oxycodone pills and handed them to an inmate, who then placed it in his or her sock, according to the probable cause affidavit. Another time, she pulled a bottle out of her bra with oxycodone pills and lorazepam, according to the affidavit.

Bodner was taken into custody Friday afternoon as she arrived at the jail for another scheduled appointment with the inmate, the sheriff's office said.

She is charged with four counts of delivery of a controlled substance and four counts of introduction of a controlled substance into a correctional facility, all felonies. She was released Saturday evening after posting $4,000 bond, the sheriff's office said.

In 2005, Bodner was sentenced to 10 weekends in jail while she lived on Longboat Key, according to an Associated Press report, after she lied on forms to involuntarily commit a neighbor, who had later died:

"Holli Bodner, of Longboat Key, had a yearlong feud with Jean Pierre Villar about streetlights and dog poop before committing him to a mental-health center under Florida's Baker Act, allowing involuntary three-day commitments for psychological evaluations.

A prosecutor argued that Bodner's action in April 2003 contributed to the 41-year-old's death from a blood clot in November. She pleaded no contest to a perjury charge and said she didn't mean any harm."

For more on that feud that ended tragically, read this 2003 account by The Herald-Tribune on Villar's situation with Bodner.