THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240533
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 30 lines
A 10-year veteran police officer was fired after an investigation revealed he had violated administrative policies. Police would not elaborate, but court documents show that the officer is under investigation for allegedly obtaining drugs by fraud through ``doctor shopping.''
James Victor Bailey, who was assigned to the crime prevention section, was fired on Jan. 15, according to Elizabeth Jones, a spokeswoman for Chesapeake police.
Bailey, 37, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
An investigation by the Police Internal Affairs Unit was prompted by a citizen complaint that ``a police officer was seeing several doctors.'' A Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield fraud investigator was later called in to help.
After the investigation, it was determined that Bailey had been to at least 20 area pharmacies, five hospitals and at least 52 doctors in 1996, according to search warrant affidavits filed in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake circuit courts.
``Bailey also received prescriptions from those doctors for several types of pain killing/mood altering narcotics,'' the court papers said. ``The pill count for those drugs alone totaled approximately 2200.''
Between Aug. 1 and Dec. 2, Bailey went to 16 doctors, including 11 family and general practitioners, two orthopedic doctors, a psychiatrist, a dentist and an emergency medicine specialist, according to the court papers.