Bradenton Woman Accused Of Writing Dozens Of Phony Prescriptions

SARASOTA, FL — A 49-year-old Bradenton woman, who worked as a medical assistant for a doctor, has been accused of writing dozens of phony prescriptions over a two-year period.

Kelly A. Gaffney is facing 241 felony charges and 26 misdemeanors, including trafficking in morphine, trafficking in oxycodone, criminal use of personal identification and possession of prescription blanks, according to Genevieve Judge of the Sarasota Police Department.

Judge said Gaffney is accused of writing phony prescriptions in her name and in the name of her son on a monthly basis since April of 2018.

A Sarasota pharmacist alerted police to the possible phony prescriptions on April 7.

"The prescriptions were from Gaffney’s employer, but Gaffney was not an established patient with her employer," Judge said. "The doctor, who Gaffney worked for, accessed her own prescribing profile from the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring database after realizing that prescriptions may have been stolen."

The doctor reported to Sarasota Police that the phony prescriptions had been written and filled for Gaffney and her adult son.

"Detectives were able to determine Gaffney was stealing blank prescription forms from her employer dating back to April 2018," Judge said. "Video surveillance was obtained from the pharmacy in Sarasota on multiple occasions showing Gaffney arriving, providing a prescription, which listed her employer as the prescribing doctor, paying for and taking possession of the fraudulently obtained controlled substances."

Judge said Gaffney is accused of fraudulently receiving 2,760 morphine pills, 5,160 oxycodone pills and 1,530 Lorazepam pills.

"She was arrested by undercover Sarasota police detectives at the pharmacy in Sarasota when she arrived to fill another fraudulent prescription," Judge added.

Gaffney has been charged with:

• 116 counts of obtaining or attempting to obtain by fraud
• 116 counts of criminal use of personal identification information
• 26 counts of possession of RX prescription blanks (misdemeanors)
• 3 counts of trafficking in morphine 4-14 grams
• 3 counts of trafficking in oxycodone 7-14 grams
• 3 counts of possession of a controlled substance (Lorazepam)

Gaffney is being held at Sarasota County Jail on $360,000 bail.