Head of prescription fraud ploy receives 30 year sentence – The Marshall Democrat-News

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On a total of 36 felony counts, Anne Marie Coke, 36, of Marshall, received a 30-year prison sentence Monday, May 22, after reaching a plea agreement with the Saline County Prosecutor’s Office.

Coke pleaded guilty to 33 separate counts of fraudulently attempting to obtain controlled substance, a class D felony, with a maximum sentence of four years per count. Additionally, she pleaded guilty to three counts of a class B felony of distributing controlled substance to a minor. The later count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

According to Coke’s testimony, she would take pre-signed prescription forms from the dental office where she worked and use them to fill out fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone. She would fill out the prescriptions in the names of 12 separate people, including herself and her juvenile daughter. The others involved would then pick up the prescriptions from a pharmacy and meet up with Coke later on to receive reimbursement and divide the pills. In the three instances of distributing a controlled substance to a minor, Coke admitted that she had given oxycodone to two separate juveniles.

On the recommendation of Prosecuting Attorney Donald Stouffer, Judge Dennis Rolf ruled that each of the class D felony counts would carry the maximum sentence of 4 years, and each of the class B felonies would carry the maximum sentence of 15 years. However, per the plea agreement, all of the class D felony counts and all but one of the class B felony counts will be imposed concurrently, with the final class B felony count to be served consecutively to all other counts.

Stouffer noted that while the charges filed ranged from June 2014 to February 2016, additional instances discovered in the investigation had exceeded the statute of limitations for charges to be brought. A total of 109 other charges for the same offenses to which Coke pleaded guilty were dropped under the terms of the agreement.

Two of Coke’s co-defendants in the investigation, Natalie and Stuart Gossett, pleaded guilty in January to five counts each of fraudulently attempting to obtain controlled substance.