Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 3, 1992 TAG: 9203030275
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Willie Alexander Ransone - who for 54 years has operated Ransone's Drug Store on Main Street - will continue to operate his drugstore but will give up the pharmacy portion of the business.
Ransone's attorney, Bill Wilson, said Ransone will try to lease the pharmacy to another operator in order to continue to provide pharmacy services to Buchanan residents.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald said prosecutors also want the drugstore to remain open. "The drugstore is a public service. It's an important anchor in downtown Buchanan."
Fitzgerald stressed that at no time did Ransone or his former pharmacist, James Edward Hayes, dispense the wrong medicine to anyone. Ransone simply filled prescriptions for people without having a license to dispense prescription drugs and Hayes falsified records to cover up for Ransone's actions, he said.
According to a plea agreement, Ransone pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of illegally dispensing oxycodone hydrochloride, also known as percocet, to a federal agent in 1991.
Hayes pleaded guilty last week to a similar misdemeanor charge, Fitzgerald said.
Ransone agreed to forfeit $5,000 to the United States in settlement of a forfeiture claim the government had on his business.
He also agreed never to operate a pharmacy in his store or to hire a pharmacist to operate it for him. But under the terms of the agreement, Ransone may lease space in his store to a pharmacist.
Hayes worked for Ransone as a pharmacist-in-charge, but he worked only part time - dividing his time between Ransone's and a drugstore in Roanoke, Fitzgerald said. Without any assistant pharmacists, Ransone continued to fill prescriptions when Hayes was away, he said.
U.S. District Judge Sam Wilson will sentence both men after reviewing background reports. Both face a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $25,000 fine.
After he was indicted last July, Ransone said all he ever tried to do was help people. "I haven't done a thing that I'm ashamed of," he said.
The charges arose from an investigation conducted in 1990 and 1991 by state police and the state Department of Health Professions.
Ransone has been charged before in Botetourt County with practicing pharmacy without a license, a misdemeanor. "He pleaded guilty and was fined a number of times, but he continued, we allege, to give out controlled substances as though he was a pharmacist," Fitzgerald said last year.
by CNB