Jun 5, 2008 4:58 pm US/Pacific
Dentist Accused Of Hiding Meth In Patient's File
LODI (CBS13) ―
Police say a local dentist had
methamphetamine hidden in a patient's file and that she wrote nearly 1,000 prescriptions
for Vicodin in the last year alone. Now
that dentist is behind bars and police won't let her bail out.
Dr. Vonnie Sawyer has been a fugitive for the last nine years. Sawyer is wanted in Nevada for allegedly writing bad checks. Now that she is in custody, Nevada wants to extradite her back. So with her and her doors to her clinic locked up, she won't be free for awhile.
Dr. Vonnie Sawyer's mug shot shows a somewhat disheveled and embarrassed professional.
"I'm shaking. She was my dentist. I'm sorry for her," patient.
Patients stopped by her office today thinking that the business was open and she would be there.
"Today was the day I supposed to have my root canal done," says Monica Patterson, patient.
All patient Mike Woodward needed was help getting in.
"I'm hoping that someone's gonna come and unlock the office so that they can find my wife's tooth," said Woodward.
He even posted a note saying 'please help us to get Dianne's tooth.'
Pediatric dentist Kevin Flemming works next door to Sawyer, and says her boyfriend Don Lewis is trouble.
"He's bad news, you can ask anybody," says Dr. Flemming.
According to police, Dr. Sawyer wrote 1,000 Vicodin prescriptions in one year, 39 of which went to Don Lewis. Woodward says he he into him in the office one day.
"Nobody was here except for her husband, and he answered this door instead of that door. So, when I walked in, he's going through everything in the place, and then finally he said 'oh, I found it,' and it was a prescription pad, and he walks off that way. He said ' you here for a script? I can write you one," said Woodward.
There are even allegations of people showing up just to get pills. One woman who came up to the office, appeared very confused, and said her mother was a patient. When CBS13 told her the doctor was in jail she looked extremely frustrated.
As CBS13 tried to confront her to ask if she was here to buy pills, she drove off.
Dr. Sawyer's boyfriend is also in jail. He reportedly has five warrants, everything from domestic violence to child abuse. That's how this investigation initially started. Officials came looking for him, and then stumbled on her suspected activities.
The California dental board is moving to suspend Dr. Sawyer's dental license.
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