Pharmacist pleads not guilty to drug theft

But police say he's suspected in several other Colorado cases

Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 29, 2005 at midnight

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Police said a pharmacist told them he helped a nurse steal narcotics from a Denver hospital and from drug stores in three other cities, court records show.

On Monday, however, pharmacist Loren Priem, 28, of Denver, was arraigned in Denver county court and pleaded not guilty to two counts of being in possession of a controlled substance from a Congress Park pharmacy where he worked.

In the course of the investigation, detectives said Priem told them he stole narcotics this year from pharmacies in Littleton, Las Animas and Grand Junction, according to court papers.

So far, Priem has not been charged with any offenses in those jurisdictions.

Detectives believe that when he was a pharmacist at the Colorado Acute Long Term Hospital in Denver earlier this year, Priem helped a nurse steal large amounts of an anesthetic narcotic.

The nurse, Keith W. Little, 35, last week was arrested on suspicion of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and deceit, and being in possession of a controlled substance.

For several months, Denver detectives have known that Priem was under investigation by police in cities where he'd previously worked.

In southeastern Colorado, Las Animas Police Chief Donald Trujillo confirmed that his office had investigated Priem in July on suspicion of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and deceit. Trujillo said he turned the case over to the Bent County district attorney.

In the Denver case, Priem faces charges in a case involving theft of narcotics from a Congress Park pharmacy last summer.

Detectives and agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration, aware that Priem was under suspicion in Las Animas, conducted a surveillance of the Capitol Heights Pharmacy where he was working in July, according to the detectives' probable-cause report. The detectives and agents said they saw Priem leave the pharmacy and get into a Toyota 4 Runner in the building's parking lot.

The detectives and agents converged on the car as Priem was leaving and arrested him. Inside Priem's Toyota, authorities said they found unopened plastic bottles of Ambien, which treats patients for insomnia, and the pain reliever Oxycontin. Detectives also recovered two large bottles of Ibuprofen, they wrote in their report.

Detectives later searched Priem's apartment and discovered another unopened bottle of Ambien and empty vials of morphine sulfate, according to the probable-cause document.

After his arrest, detectives wrote, Priem said he took Oxycontin from Val U Med Healthmart pharmacy in Las Animas.

He also acknowledged stealing Ambien from Albertson's pharmacy in Littleton, they wrote.

When he was a pharmacist at the Kmart pharmacy in Grand Junction, Priem allegedly said he stole the controlled substance Xanax, which is used to treat patients with anxiety or panic disorders.

Detectives said Priem told them he sold the narcotics to "acquaintances" to help him pay off a credit card debt.

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