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Woman arrested for forging prescriptions

A Belington woman who allegedly forged seven prescriptions for six individuals was arrested Wednesday.

Michelle Renee Skidmore, 41, was charged with seven felony counts of forgery after she allegedly took sheets from the prescription pad of a doctor at her former workplace and wrote fraudulent prescriptions on them.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the Randolph County Magistrate Clerk’s Office, on Tuesday, Lt. S.D. Richards with the Elkins Police Department received information and documents from a witness that led to Skidmore’s arrest. The documents the witness provided matched the writing on the forged prescriptions obtained by police.

Richards’ investigation showed that in March and April of 2012, Skidmore allegedly wrote and signed seven prescriptions for six individuals. Six of the prescriptions were for Percocet and one was for Xanax, the complaint states.

The witness told Richards, the investigating officer, that Skidmore had been employed at Dr. William San Pablo’s office, located on Main Street in Elkins, from April 17, 2011, to July 6, 2011. The complaint alleges that Skidmore removed sheets from a prescription pad from the doctor’s office and later forged prescriptions and San Pablo’s signature in seven instances.

San Pablo gave police a signed statement saying the signature was not his own, and the people for whom they had been written were not his patients.

Magistrate Rob Elbon set bond at $100,000 property or surety, and Skidmore remained in Tygart Valley Regional Jail as of presstime.

The penalty for a conviction of one count of forgery is confinement in the state penitentiary for a term of one to 10 years, or in the court’s discretion, confinement in regional jail for up to one year and a $500 fine.

Contact Katie Kuba by email at kkuba@theintermountain.com.

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