Woman
guilty of trying to pass fake prescription
A Riverside woman was found
guilty after a trial of trying to obtain Xanax with
a fake prescription. Angela P. Stanton, 29, of Riverside
was convicted of fraudulently attempting to obtain a
prescription drug on October 8.
Platte County Prosecutor
Eric Zahnd said the crime was as much a desperate cry
for help as it was an illegal act. “Medical records
presented at trial document this defendant as a ‘well-known
drug seeker,’” Zahnd said.
“The defendant also
testified that she had attempted suicide and had been
‘pronounced dead about three times.’”
Prosecutors charged that
Stanton went to St. Luke’s Northland Hospital on
Nov. 17, 2002. At the hospital, Stanton received a prescription
for two drugs. After leaving, prosecutors alleged she
wrote herself a prescription for a third drug at the
bottom of the form. Stanton testified she had no memory
of her actions that day.
The evidence presented
at trial indicated Stanton then went to a pharmacy on
Barry Road to have the prescriptions filled. The pharmacist
testified that she immediately was suspicious when she
noticed the handwriting for the third drug was different
than the top two. She also testified that the ink color
for the third drug was slightly different. The pharmacist
delayed Stanton and called the doctor to verify the
prescription. Shortly thereafter, Kansas City, Missouri
Police were called and arrested Stanton.
Zahnd said, “This
defendant admitted she was undergoing significant personal
problems. She testified at trial that she was on probation
for assaulting a Division of Family Services employee.
Those problems escalated to the point the she has committed
a felony by attempting to fake a prescription.”
Zahnd said he believed
Stanton needed drug rehabilitation treatment and that
his office would likely ask that Stanton be placed in
a treatment program within the Missouri Department of
Corrections.
“If the defendant
is going to get her life in order, she needs the kind
of intensive treatment offered in Missouri’s Institutional
Treatment Center,” Zahnd said.
The Institutional Treatment
Center is a four-month program offered within the prison
system designed to treat drug abusers.
Stanton’s sentencing
is set for November 13, 2003. The case was handled by
Platte County Assistant Prosecutor Joe Vanover.
