The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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Linda Quick |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
By KEN BRADLEY - Staff Writer
A former assistant director of nursing at a Rocky Mount nursing home will serve three years in prison for the distribution of prescription drugs she took from the facility.
Linda Sloan Quick, 57, of Rocky Mount was also sentenced to three years probation, following her prison sentence, and she was ordered to be of good behavior for 25 years, according to court records.
The sentence was handed down Monday in Franklin County Circuit Court.
Court records show that the drugs taken from the nursing home by Quick had either expired or had been prescribed for patients who had died or had been transferred to another health facility.
"The drugs she was taking should have been destroyed according to procedure," said Maj. Josh Carter with the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.
The sheriff's department received anonymous information that a nursing home employee was selling prescription drugs, and investigators got Quick's name from a confidential informant, Carter said.
"The drug unit started an investigation and made several purchases from Quick over a 90-day period during the summer of 2008," Carter added.
"The nursing facility was very cooperative with the investigation," said Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt. Quick was indicted on the charges in October 2008.
Quick pleaded guilty to four charges of prescription drug distribution, including one count of distributing Fentanyl (Schedule 2) and three counts of distributing Hydrocodone (Schedule 3).
Seven other charges of distributing Lorazepam and Diazepam were dismissed through a plea agreement with the Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
The additional charges on Schedule 4 drugs, like Lorazepam and Diazepam, would have made very little difference in the sentencing guidelines, said Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.
"The guidelines are screwing up drug cases," he said. "The guidelines for drug charges are pitifully light."
The guidelines are set by the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission.
Quick was sentenced to 10 years for distribution of Fentanyl, but seven years of the sentence were suspended.
Quick was also sentenced to three years on each of the three counts of distribution of Hydrocodone. All nine years were suspended.
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