Warrant Issued for Lakeville Woman Charged with Stealing Vicodin

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Lakeville woman accused of stealing Vicodin and jewelry from a Farmington multiple sclerosis patient for whom she worked as a personal care attendant.

Kristin Michelle Poppa, 29, faces three felony charges in the case: theft of a controlled substance, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and theft and receiving stolen property, each of which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Farmington police were notified in April 2010 that an employee of an Eden Prairie company was suspected of stealing medications from a patient.

Police spoke to the victim’s husband, who said Poppa had worked as his wife’s personal care attendant for about two years, spending most of the day with her while he was at work.

The man told police that his wife takes four Vicodin pills a day, and that he had filled a prescription for 360 pills in early March. When he began to suspect that some of her Vicodin was disappearing, he separated the extra pills from her other medications and hid the bottle of extra Vicodin in a dresser drawer.

The man told police that he counted the pills regularly, and determined that 34 of them had disappeared between March 30 and April 12, 2010. He said a gold bracelet, valued at $1,185, which was kept in the same drawer also disappeared.

Police learned that Poppa pawned the bracelet and other miscellaneous jewelry at a Burnsville pawn shop on March 30, 2010. Surveillance video showed Poppa pawning the items, according to the complaint.

Police interviewed Poppa on April 14, 2010, and she admitted taking several items of jewelry from the victim and pawning them. She denied taking any Vicodin pills, telling police that in December 2009 she had gotten her own prescription for Percocet, which her doctor had switched several weeks earlier to Vicodin.

Poppa told police that because she had her own prescription for Vicodin, she didn’t need to take her patient’s pills.