Pharmacists plead guilty to charges

Staff report

WARREN

Two Trumbull County pharmacists pleaded guilty Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to five felony charges related to prescription drugs they dispensed while working for Overholt’s Champion Pharmacy.

The prescriptions, written by a Middlefield physician who is now deceased, were for pain medications in quantities that were as much as 10 times higher than the typical amount.

Robert J. Gaves, 65, of Orchard Street, Newton Falls, and Andrea Luchette, 39, of Yankee Run Drive, Masury, pleaded guilty in separate hearings Friday to five counts of complicity to deception to obtain a dangerous drug.

The charges each carry a penalty of up to one year in prison. Gaves and Luchette will be sentenced in four to six weeks, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation.

Gaves and Luchette have agreed to testify against any others involved, said Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.

Pharmacists have a duty to perform a gate-keeping function in their work to protect consumers, and charges such as these can result when a pharmacist doesn’t do that, Burnett said.

The prescriptions involved in this case were written by Dr. Peter Franklin, 73, of Bainbridge Township in Geauga County, who was killed by his wife, Sandra in August 2009, during an argument. Sandra Franklin later was convicted of killing her husband and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Dr. Franklin operated a family-medicine and pain-management practice in Middlefield until his death. Sandra Franklin worked at the office.

Fox 8 News of Cleveland said at the time of Dr. Franklin’s death that he was the focus of an investigation by the Ohio State Pharmacy Board and the Geauga County prosecutor, but he was never charged with a crime.

Dr. Franklin’s office in Middlefield was raided in February 2009 by police and state narcotics agents who had received complaints from his patients or their families about the addictive drugs he prescribed, Fox 8 news reported.