Corrections officer given probation in drug scheme

A former corrections officer has been senten-ced to one year of probation for her role in a prescription drug scheme allegedly organized by her cousin.
Deven Saghy, 46, of Uniontown, was charged with insurance fraud, obtaining a prescription drug through misrepresentation, possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy for allegedly receiving prescription pain pills from her cousin, Dr. William Ainsley, a podiatrist who had been treating her.
At her pleading guilty earlier this year, Saghy told the court she did not use the hydroco-done pills prescribed to her.
She said Ainsley was treating her for problems with her feet, and the treatment included cortisone injections in her ankles.
She testified Ainsley would give her a prescription for the painkiller hydrocodone, and asked her to give some of them to him.
Saghy’s defense attorney, Dianne Zerega, told Fayette County President Judge John F. Wagner that Saghy’s was not the typical drug case to come before him.
“She’s been involved in law enforcement for the past 10 years at (the State Correctional Institution at Greene). If this had not been her cousin who asked her to do this, it would not have happened,” Zerega said. “She lost her career because of this.”
At her sentencing Thursday Saghy underscored what Zerega said.
“I admit I did wrong. If I had realized I was jeopardizing my job, I never would have done it. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” Saghy told Wagner prior to her sentencing.
In addition to the year of probation, Saghy must pay court costs and fees, make restitution to the insurance company and provide truthful testimony against co-defendants.
Ainsley is facing 16 counts of insurance fraud and drug violations for allegedly writing prescriptions for painkillers, with patients then returning half of each prescription with him.
Palmer Sabatine, 42; Randell Keith Rice Jr., 27; Carl Eugene Santavicca, 62; and Robert C. Woleslagle, 57, all of Uniontown, also former patients, were also charged with drug violations.
Sabatine, a suspended Laurel Highlands elementary school teacher, appeared in court earlier this summer asking a judge to dismiss the case against him.