3 arrested after allegedly trying to fill fake prescription in dead person’s name at Washington pharmacy

Stock image by Cody Blowers, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Officers recovered a large amount of evidence during a search of a vehicle reportedly involved in a prescription fraud scheme when medication was called in for a dead person.

2016 stock image | St. George News

Emergency dispatch received a call Saturday from a pharmacy in Washington City shortly after noon reporting a fraudulent opioid-based prescription was called into the pharmacy inside a grocery store on Red Cliffs Drive.

Officers responded and spoke to the staff who said while attempting to verify the prescription, they learned the patient was deceased.

Officers waited for the suspect, and after several minutes a man walked up to the counter to pick up the medication. Officers moved in and detained the suspect, Calvin Jordan Williams, 18, of Phoenix, Arizona, according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.

Meanwhile, additional officers responded and scoured the parking lot, suspecting there might be multiple suspects. One of the officers noticed a brown sedan exit the parking lot with two occupants inside. When the officer spotted two brake lights that were out, the vehicle was stopped on Red Cliffs Drive for an equipment violation.

While speaking to the driver, Arizona resident Jazmyne Aisia Brooks, 20, the officer asked what the two were doing at the pharmacy Brooks said they were there to pick up a prescription but said it wasn’t there.

The passenger initially told police his name was Alex Joseph, which turned out to be incorrect, and he was later identified as Alexander Joseph Gala, 23, of Phoenix.

When officers viewed the pharmacy’s surveillance footage, they saw a man exit a vehicle that matched the car that was stopped, which led the officer to believe “Jazmyne and the male were involved in a fraud scheme.”

Armed with a warrant, officers searched the car and recovered “a large amount” of evidence, including a piece of paper with several notes written in pen listing the personal identification information belonging to multiple individuals – including dates of birth, “agency” numbers, as well as “commissary” numbers. The list also contained a mailing address for one of the individuals listed also had a mailing address.

All three suspects were transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility and booked into jail.

Williams told officers he was hired to pick up the prescription and then declined to answer any questions. He was booked on two misdemeanor counts, including obstruction of justice and falsely obtaining or dispensing a prescription. He was released a short time later.

Gala faces one third-degree felony count of possession of multiple identification documents, along with three misdemeanor charges, including one count each of conspiracy, providing false information of another to police and possession of marijuana.

The report also states that while at the jail, the officer attempted to put Gala’s cell phone on airplane mode, which is standard procedure when booking cell phones into evidence, but he “unintentionally observed a message from an unknown application telling him to delete his photos ‘urgently’,” he noted in the report.

Brooks faces one third-degree felony count of possession of multiple identification documents, as well as four misdemeanor charges, including one count each of conspiracy, interfering with an arrest, possession of marijuana and driving on a suspended license. She was also booked on the two traffic offenses.

The officer also requested that both Brooks and Gala be held without bail since the suspects are not from Utah and have no ties to the area. The request was approved and both remain in custody without bail.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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