A Barren County, Kentucky, physician pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to seven criminal counts of knowingly and intentionally distributing and dispensing controlled substances outside the course of professional medical practice and health care fraud, while he was a practicing physician in the Western District of Kentucky, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.

Dr. Christopher Steward, of Cave City, was a dentist and a nurse practitioner with a practice located at 212 Broadway in Cave City and had a Drug Enforcement Agency registration number which authorized him to write prescriptions within the course of professional medical practice.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

According to the plea agreement, on six separate occasions, between March 6, 2015, and June 6, 2015, Steward intentionally conspired with patients to acquire possession of Schedule II and Schedule IV controlled substances, through misrepresentation and fraud, outside the course of medical practice, in order to distribute and/or acquire possession of prescription pills, mostly for his own use.

Further, Steward admits that on June 6, 2015, he willfully executed a scheme to defraud Kentucky Medicaid, a health care benefit program, in connection with the delivery of payment for health care benefits, by writing a prescription for alprazolam, a Schedule IV controlled substance, for a patient without the patient’s knowledge or consent.  That prescription was subsequently filled by someone other than the patient, again without the patient’s knowledge or consent, and Steward obtained those pills.  That fraudulent prescription was paid for by Kentucky Medicaid, through Coventry Managed Care.

Steward was arrested on April 13, 2016, made an initial appearance before Magistrate Judge H. Brent Brennenstuhl, in Bowling Green, and released on a $25,000 unsecured bond.

At the time of sentencing, the United States will move for dismissal of Count 8 of the Indictment (identity theft) and agree that a sentencing range between 18 months of imprisonment and 30 months of imprisonment is the appropriate disposition of this case. Further, the defendant will agree to forfeit property located at 212 Broadway Street in Cave City, Kentucky, and a 2009 Ford F-150 white pickup truck.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Weiser, and it results from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Kentucky State Police.

Lexington Police are investigating a robbery in downtown Lexington overnight.

It happened after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday near E. High and South Limestone.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Police say that two men struck a man and stole his wallet. No further suspect descriptions were available.

The two people accused of killing a man that went missing in January have been indicted on murder charges.

Aaron Michael Tappe hadn’t been seen since January 2016. In March, agents and deputies recovered his body in Steinhatchee.

Douglas Mihal, 20, and his 17 year-old girlfriend, Oriana Lynn Forsythe, were indicted for first degree murder, accessory after the fact, grand theft of a firearm, grand theft auto, and tampering with evidence.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Both Mihal and his girlfriend were arrested in California and have been extradited and booked into the Taylor County jail.

The Roswell Police Department is asking for the public’s help locating a missing person.

Olivia Hudson, a 17-year-old black female, was recently reported missing by her mother. Hudson was last seen walking home in Roswell on April 26, 2016 at 12:30 a.m. from the Kroger shopping center, located at 900 Marietta Hwy, Roswell.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Hudson does not have a cell phone, money or vehicle. She was wearing an Atlanta Hawks t-shirt, black pants, a gray headband, and black/white Nike shoes.

If located, please contact 911 or the Roswell Police Department at 770-640-4100.

A man was arrested after deputies say he supplied narcotics to inmates in the Franklin County Regional Jail.

Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton says that on Monday, narcotics detectives were made aware of a plot for someone to smuggle narcotics into the jail.

A Deputy Jailer obtained the information from an inmate who was discussing a plan to import drugs into the jail through the work release inmates.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

They say that detectives learned through an investigation that Joseph Allen Montgomery would supply narcotics to the inmates.

Montgomery had devised a plan to plant narcotics in a location at an undisclosed inmate work site. The narcotics were to be later recovered from inmates working a work detail and eventually smuggled into the jail, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

On Tuesday around 9:00 a.m., deputies and narcotics detectives were watching the drop location. Montgomery was found to be concealing the narcotics at the location.  They say that deputy jailers were able to apprehend the inmates as they were recovering the narcotics.

They say Montgomery put crack cocaine in a can of tobacco and left it in the bathroom of the inmate work site.

He was followed away from the scene and arrested for Trafficking in a Controlled Substance and Promoting Contraband into a Detention Facility.

Investigators also found $3,000 in cash and a small amount of marijuana after search the residence where Montgomery was living.

Better Business Bureau^® serving Central & Eastern Kentucky is warning central Kentuckians about a phone scam from con artists pretending to be with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“We have received over 100 calls as of early Tuesday afternoon from residents reporting this scam, and we expect that number to increase,” said Jack Frank, President & CEO of the BBB serving Central & Eastern Kentucky.  “People receiving the call report a recorded message stating that a lawsuit will be filed unless the taxpayer returns the call immediately to the IRS to make good on back taxes owed. The calls are really from con artists pretending to be with the IRS to try and trick people into paying money to them.”

This phone scam has been going on for well over a year, according to the IRS, but has hit the Lexington and central Kentucky very hard this week.  No caller has reported falling for the scam, but some were not certain if it was legitimate, causing them to contact the BBB for verification. All the phone numbers that residents have reported from their Caller ID or the voice messages are different.  The con artists are believed to be overseas and using computer technology to make their phone calls appear to be coming from inside the United States, particularly the Washington, D.C. area.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

BBB and the IRS advise residents NOT to return the calls.  The IRS also advises that their agency will NEVER:

• Call to demand immediate payment over the phone, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.

• Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

• Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.

• Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.

• Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

More information is available at www.irs.gov. Consumers who wish to check out questionable phone calls with BBB may call (859) 259-1008 or 1-800-866-666, or log on towww.bbb.org/lexington.

Leanna Walker’s family wants their missing 17-year-old daughter to know she’s not in any trouble and they just want her home.

This was the message as the search for the Milford, Pike County, Pa., teen, missing since Wednesday April 18, intensified on Sunday with the anonymous offering of a $10,000 reward and an organized search involving volunteer first responders organized by the group Missing in America. All this, according to reports by the Pocono Record:

“We want her to know we love her very much and her family is very concerned,” Walker’s sister Diane Bostedo told the newspaper in a phone interview Saturday. She added that Leanna should not worry that she is in trouble with her family – she is not, they just want her to come home.

Said Trooper Connie Devens of the state police: “She is a missing person originally reported to us as a runaway. We have no evidence to lead us to believe she has been harmed in anyway,” the newspaper quoted.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

However, developments regarding Walker’s boyfriend have been troubling, as the Pocono Record reports:

Walker’s boyfriend, Sky Michael McDonough, 24, also from Milford, was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, including active arrest warrants from Sussex, New Jersey for burglary and fleeing apprehension.

McDonough was identified as a person of interest in Walker’s missing person case, and agreed to take police to the location where he said he and Walker were staying in the woods, a criminal complaint said.

However, during this search, McDonough was able to escape from the officer escorting him.

A makeshift campsite was later discovered inside a barn on a llama farm, and McDonough was taken back into custody after being found in that area.

Anyone with information or leads is encouraged to contact Blooming Grove State Police at 570-226-5718.

A woman received a scare overnight when she discovered a man in her home.

It happened at a house on Emery Avenue. The woman came downstairs and discovered a man with a t-shirt over his head. He was armed with a plastic knife and demanded cash.

The woman handed over what money she had and pushed him out the door.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

So far, police say they don’t have a good description of the suspect or how he got into the home. There were several children inside the home at the time.