Pharmacist gets fines, probation for trafficking
WARREN -- A Hermitage man working as a pharmacist for CVS in Warren and Niles has pleaded guilty to two felony trafficking in drugs charges for agreeing to fill a forged prescription for an undercover agent.
Gary Nicholas Sass, 45, of 23 Baker Ave., was sentenced this week in the Trumbull County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos to five years of probation, a $10,000 fine and $20,000 reimbursement to the agencies conducting the investigation.
According to prosecutors, Sass was working as a "floater" pharmacist at the CVS store on East Market Street in Warren when a female agent posing as a customer asked Sass whether he could fill a forged prescription for her.
He told her he couldn't do it at the Warren store because it was too busy there but that he could do it at the store on Youngstown-Warren Road in Niles. He filled the prescription at the Niles store in August 2004, prosecutors said.
In text messages on the agent's telephone, Sass said he wanted sex in return for the prescription, the prosecutor's office said.