Police: Forged Prescriptions Catch up to Drug Abuser

Stamford police already had a warrant for her arrest, and a pharmacy in Fairfield had just found prescriptions had been forged for her when a Darien pharmacy alerted police that a woman with a forged prescription was in the store, police said.

So, at about 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, local police rushed to CVS at 964 Post Rd. Uniformed officers stayed outside while plain-clothes detectives went indoors to try to catch the 36-year-old woman in the act of getting painkillers for the forged scrip, police said.

Darien police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of the matter:

A woman who matched the description given to police was standing at the pharmacy counter and looking very nervous as she waited for her order to be filled. Then she decided to leave.

She had just gotten in her car and was just about to start it when Sgt. Jeremiah Marron opened the car door and grabbed her, telling her she was under arrest.

How did CVS know the prescription was forged? The pharmacist knew Cecily Katz, a former Fairfield County resident who now lives in Manhattan, as a repeat customer — and the name on the prescription she gave the pharmacy was different.

When asked about the different names, Katz claimed to be picking up the painkiller for someone else, but the pharmacist's suspicion was aroused. Suspicion was also heightened because Katz requested Vicoprofen, a medicine containing hydrocodone — a very addictive opiod (opium-like substance) that can get someone high.

Many people have become addicted to certain painkillers like Vicoprofen after their doctors prescribe them for pain. That may have been what happened to Katz: In her car, police found months-old, legitimate painkiller prescriptions for her.

The pharmacist, with suspicions aroused, called the office of the doctor whose name was on the prescription to confirm that everything was all right. It wasn't.

The Danbury doctor whose office was called already knew Katz had tried to use fraudulent prescriptions. Police were called — but the call went to Danbury police, who then notified Darien police.

Earlier on Tuesday — at 2 a.m., Katz had tried to get a similar prescription filled at a CVS pharmacy in Fairfield. People trying to fill fraudulent prescriptions often do so at odd hours in the hope that a pharmacist then may be more lenient.

That didn't happen in this case. The pharmacist called the doctor's contact number at 2 a.m. The prescription was not filled.

Darien police charged Katz, of 80th Street in Manhattan, with second-degree forgery and attempt to illegally obtain prescription narcotics.

Katz has a criminal history with various police departments in Fairfield and Westchester counties, and while Darien police were processing her arrest, they found Stamford police already had a warrant for her arrest. In fact, she had already agreed to present herself to Stamford police to be arrested later that same day.

Stamford police held her initially on a $25,000 bond, which was paid. She is scheduled to appear on Friday in state Superior Court in Stamford in connection with the Darien charges.

The day after her Darien arrest, Danbury police arrested Katz on charges of third-degree criminal mischief and sixth-degree larceny. For that case, she's scheduled to appear on May 22 in state Superior Court in Danbury.