Walgreens pharmacy tech in California accused of impersonating a pharmacist and PIC for ~12 years

[VA77]

Anyone know what her final sentence was?

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[BenJammin]

The court record I found showed 1 year confinement in the Santa Rita Jail and 5 years probation on September 14, 2020.

 

[VA77]

Both her and Wags got off light. I wonder what would happen if I impersonated another profession would the same punishment be in order.

Did she have to pay a fine?

 

[confettiflyer]

Wow, almost forgot about this case. She plead guilty at the start of the COVID pandemic and was sentenced May 2020.

Wags had to pay a fine and institute a bunch of credential controls and conduct periodic audits as a part of the settlement.

Bay Area Walgreens’ phony pharmacist pleads no contest to felonies

Kim Thien Le entered the plea Thursday for felony charges of false impersonation, identity theft, and obtaining money, labor or property by false pretenses.

www.mercurynews.com

 

[confettiflyer]

And BenJammin is correct, here’s the sentence record:

Adult Confinement
Type: County Jail
Facility: Santa Rita Jail
Start Date: 09/14/2020
Term Type: Confinement
Term: 1 Year
Credit for Time Served - Actual: 1 Day
Comment: Additional 6 Months CJ stayed until completion of LCA.

Probation
Type: Formal Probation
Start Date: 09/14/2020
Term: 5 Years
End Date: 09/14/2025

If I’m reading the top correctly, she likely only served 6 months of that sentence before being confined at home with an electronic monitor (the part about LCA). Maybe less if they were doing COVID releases of low risk offenders.

 

[VA77]

I wonder if she will face any civil litigation. Eric Cropp got 6 months a we know he killed somebody and was a real pharmacist. She was an imposter for a decade and nobody knows if she hurt anyone and got home confinement and got to keep the money.

Just spitballing but I would say she made an xtra $90k as a PIC vs tech so I would say almost a 1M minus taxes and lawyer fees. Not a bad haul

 

[confettiflyer]

I wonder if she will face any civil litigation. Eric Cropp got 6 months a we know he killed somebody and was a real pharmacist. She was an imposter for a decade and nobody knows if she hurt anyone and got home confinement and got to keep the money.

Just spitballing but I would say she made an xtra $90k as a PIC vs tech so I would say almost a 1M minus taxes and lawyer fees. Not a bad haul

I was thinking that, too. If not the state seeking restitution, then Wags trying to claw back wages.

I did not find ANY civil litigation to indicate this happened (from wags), and the plea agreement I would need to pull the court record, but no one reported any fines paid other than by Wags. The board imposed a $333k fine, but the state AG got a $7.5M settlement.

https://www.pharmacy.ca.gov/enforcement/fy1718/ac176325

In revoking her tech license, the board mentioned the cost of investigation being $20k.

https://www.pharmacy.ca.gov/enforcement/fy1718/ac176325_tch36481

So I really think she spent 6 months in jail and did not have to pay back wages. Minus attorney fees, she may have done better than a new grad with massive student loans who works for 20-30 years.

 

[Pronounce Doxazosin]

Once I’m ready to retire, I’m just gonna outsource my work by letting a tech come work in place of me and have him/her work under my initials
(I’m joking btw)

 

[Sine Cura]

Impersonating a pharmacist was prob not seen as menacing to the public (never mind all the bad CS scripts that hit the black market) compared to people impersonating doctors

Examples of people impersonating doctors and the length of prison sentences (37 months to initially 3 years for Gerald Birnbaum):

Bizarre Medical Masquerade / Determined con man steals Stockton doctor's identity for 20 years

The con man with the gentle bedside manner masqueraded as a physician in California for...

www.sfgate.com

 

[Rukn]

What does a retail pharmacist do besides deal with bull****?

You don't need any degree for data or product verification

How often do we come across a serious DUR? Maybe a few times a day ... And you can Google most of them

And they have a school to teach people this?

LOL

 

[Chrish]

Funny. We had a floater rph who took voicemail prescriptions for prom/ codeine and then picked it up himself for his “girlfriend”. Needless to say he got caught immediately and terminated and probably lost his license (had inspector visit every pharmacy he worked at). Must have been 25 -30 old from his appearance.

Got whole career basically ruined. Pretty sad. Don’t know why people think they can get away with anything despite being so stupid.

 

[confettiflyer]

There was a bar here in CA that got caught selling forged CDC COVID-19 vaccine cards.

Those aren’t even hard to forge, they sold them for like $20 and sold like 7. So $140.

Got the liquor license suspended.

Liquor license. That thing is like gold. So stupid. Almost as stupid as the pharmacy intern who got caught selling counterfeit t-shorts and lost his license.

If you’re gonna violate the law, go for broke. That’s what K Le did and she can probably retire abroad with that $$ (unless there really was a civil suit/claw back attempt).

 

[Rukn]

Funny. We had a floater rph who took voicemail prescriptions for prom/ codeine and then picked it up himself for his “girlfriend”. Needless to say he got caught immediately and terminated and probably lost his license (had inspector visit every pharmacy he worked at). Must have been 25 -30 old from his appearance.

Got whole career basically ruined. Pretty sad. Don’t know why people think they can get away with anything despite being so stupid.

There isn't much of a "career" left here

So maybe it wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him

 

[projektreverb]

There was a bar here in CA that got caught selling forged CDC COVID-19 vaccine cards.

Those aren’t even hard to forge, they sold them for like $20 and sold like 7. So $140.

Got the liquor license suspended.

Liquor license. That thing is like gold. So stupid. Almost as stupid as the pharmacy intern who got caught selling counterfeit t-shorts and lost his license.

If you’re gonna violate the law, go for broke. That’s what K Le did and she can probably retire abroad with that $$ (unless there really was a civil suit/claw back attempt).

100%. Go big or go home.

 

[panicatthepharmacy]

There isn't much of a "career" left here

So maybe it wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him

Oooh, you're so edgy.

 

[Rukn]

Oooh, you're so edgy.

Lol I'm 100 percent serious

The job market is at a negative outlook

Salary hasn't gone up in 15+ years ... It's actually declining

Working conditions went from bad to now dangerous

Why choose to stay unless you're at the twilight of your career?

 

[confettiflyer]

Lol I'm 100 percent serious

The job market is at a negative outlook

Salary hasn't gone up in 15+ years ... It's actually declining

Working conditions went from bad to now dangerous

Why choose to stay unless you're at the twilight of your career?

Forgot the *retail

 

[Rukn]

Forgot the *retail

Heard from hospital people that salary isn't that great and also hasn't increased

 

[confettiflyer]

Heard from hospital people that salary isn't that great and also hasn't increased

I talk to my pharmacist friends about going salaries/rates a lot, I’m still seeing 3-6% annual increases here on the inpatient side. But I also live in the San Francisco Bay Area and a decent # of pharmacists here are unionized, can’t speak for other areas, even within the state.

 

[VA77]

National union is the only hope for the profession. The only question is who will be our Cesar Chavez, Jimmy Hoffa, John L Lewis, etc.

 

[Sine Cura]

Retail is a career "cul de sac" so no traction for the retail peons

 

[Sunshine98*]

Why choose to stay unless you're at the twilight of your career?

Thats all Im trying to do at this time. And in the meantime....just save save save.

 

[BidingMyTime]

I talk to my pharmacist friends about going salaries/rates a lot, I’m still seeing 3-6% annual increases here on the inpatient side. But I also live in the San Francisco Bay Area and a decent # of pharmacists here are unionized, can’t speak for other areas, even within the state.

That is pretty good. I'd say the average around my area is 1 -2%. 3 - 4% at certain locales.