Two former employees of Glendale-based Cherry Creek Pediatrics fraudulently obtained hundreds of prescription painkillers from pharmacies throughout the Denver area, according to a 91-count indictment.
Named in the indictment are Stephen Poretz, 38, and Holly Green-Holden, 42, who were two key employees at the medical office, according to the Colorado State Grand Jury.
Poretz was head nurse at the office and Green-Holden was an administrative employee of nine years.
Also indicted was Brittany Highland, 23, Green-Holden’s daughter. The grand jury said Highland benefited from the actions of her mother and Poretz.
Green-Holden and Poretz were fired by Cherry Creek physician Dr. Jody Mathie after she learned that Poretz and other employees had been using her name and her Drug Enforcement Administration number to call in prescriptions for the painkillers.
According to the indictment, Poretz and Green-Holden obtained the painkillers for themselves by calling in fake prescriptions to the pharmacies starting in 2007.
Dr. Mathie, a part owner of Cherry Creek Pediatrics, told investigators that neither had permission to call in prescriptions without a doctor’s approval.
Several pharmacists became suspicious when they received prescriptions for adult men phoned in from the pediatric office, which only treats children, according to the grand jury.
The indictment states that on Aug. 6, 2008, Cherry Creek Pediatrics received a call asking why Green-Holden had called in a prescription for the painkiller Ultram, for Poretz. According to the grand jury, Green-Holden and Poretz were questioned separately to explain the prescription. Mathie then launched her own investigation, calling various pharmacies to see if any prescriptions had been filled for Poretz and Green-Holden.
She discovered that “massive amounts” of prescription drugs for painkillers had been called in, sometimes in quantities of 100, 120 and 150 tablets, according to the grand jury.
Poretz had been in trouble before. He was licensed as a registered nurse in Virginia in 2002. He then came to Colorado, where he was a nurse in the emergency room of St. Anthony’s Hospital.
On Dec. 9, 2002, a complaint was filed with the Colorado Board of Nursing alleging he had fraudulently obtained Oxycontin and Dilaudid by using a St. Anthony doctor’s DEA number.
He was required to enter a rehabilitation program and was prosecuted criminally. He pleaded guilty to obtaining drugs by fraud and deceit in Adams County in May 2003, and received a one-year deferred judgment and sentence, according to the grand jury.
The indictment said that Mathie first hired Poretz in June 2003 as an office medical assistant rather than a nurse because he disclosed that as a result of becoming addicted to painkillers following shoulder surgery, he was suspended from practice as a nurse.
Cherry Creek Pediatrics, specifically Mathie, agreed to monitor Poretz as part of the diversion program he was placed on by the Colorado Board of Nursing.
According to the grand jury, the clinic experienced no trouble with Poretz when he was there the first time, but he left for a better job.
In March 2007, the nursing board ordered Poretz to cease practice as a nurse. Just two days later, Poretz was re-hired by Mathie, but he failed to disclose to her that he had had to surrender his nursing license.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
