Suspect in ID theft, drug case waives hearing
CONNELLSVILLE – A New Jersey nurse practitioner charged with identity theft and drug possession, waived his right to a Thursday preliminary hearing and instead will have the matter heard by a Fayette County judge. Douglas D. D’Orio, 33, is charged with single felony counts of possession of narcotics by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge and identity theft and single misdemeanor counts of violating the pharmacy act, drug possession, forgery and theft by unlawful taking.
According to state police Trooper John Krause, Connellsville physician Dr. Sarah Lumley hired D’Orio in February through Fayette Medical Associates to temporarily fill a position in her office.
Lumley told police that she had several conversations with D’Orio about her prescription writing policies after she had found he had written a prescription of a narcotic without her knowledge and she had found a blank prescription attached to a patient’s chart.
In April, Lumley told police she received a telephone call from a Greensburg pharmacist who reported he had received a prescription for methadone.
Knowledgeable of her practice not to write prescriptions for narcotics, the pharmacist told the man he was unable to fill the prescription.
Lumley told police that the pharmacist faxed a copy of the prescription to her and she found it had been made out to D’Orio and contained her medical license number and a forged signature.
Police said when the pharmacist was interviewed he said that in addition to the methadone a second prescription for atenolol was submitted by the unknown man.
The pharmacist advised the man to take the prescriptions to a neighboring pharmacy.
Police said that records from the second store allegedly revealed that separate prescriptions bearing Lumley’s forged signature were filled three times over a two-week period.
Police said that a New Jersey pharmacy also provided information that D’Orio had allegedly attempted to fill two prescriptions for methadone, but was denied when the signatures were not similar. Police said both allegedly contained Lumley’s forged signatures.
D’Orio is free on a $50,000 straight cash bond.