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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992                   TAG: 9201240289
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley Bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

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3 CHARGED IN DRUG FRAUD CASES

A Montgomery County grand jury issued 27 indictments against three people Wednesday, charging they fraudulently obtained prescription drugs.

Two of the cases are related, Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said. Martha Lee Dear, 40, and James David Meredith, 33, both of Christiansburg, were each indicted on nine charges of obtaining or attempting to obtain drugs during a nine-month period in 1990 by "fraud, deceit, misrepresentation or subterfuge."

Keith said Dear was a dental assistant. She is suspected of calling in unauthorized prescriptions to local drug stores for Lortab, Cephalexin and Penicillin VK in the name of David Meredith.

In an unrelated case, Frances McCue Austin, 50, of Blacksburg, was indicted on nine similar charges.

Austin was a nurse at Montgomery Regional Hospital, Keith said. She is suspected of taking drugs - Versed, Sufenta and Sublimaze - from the anesthesia department. The drugs, used at the hospital to sedate patients, were apparently taken by Austin in late 1990 for personal use, Keith said.

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