A Round Rock police officer could be off the force for good. He's accused of prescription drug fraud.
When news hit that 32-year-old Donald D'Amour, a four-year veteran of the Round Rock police force, had been arrested for prescription fraud, his fellow officers were stunned.
"I think shocked is a better term," said Tim Ryle, the Assistant Police Chief for the city of Round Rock.
D'Amour is on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation. However prescription drug fraud is a third degree felony, so not only might he lose his job, he could spend up to five years in jail if found guilty.
According to the arrest affidavit, on Friday November 20th, D'Amour called the HEB pharmacy in Pflugerville. Investigators said D'Amour used a false name, claimed to be a doctor and called in prescriptions for himself for Hydrocodone, Diazapam and Oxycodone. The pharmacist was suspicious.
The pharmacist told detectives doctors are usually extremely rushed and short when calling in prescriptions. However the pharmacist said the man calling in the prescription in this instance, believed to be D'Amour, spoke clearly and spelled out every word. In fact he even spelled out the exact drug name and the pharmacist told the detective that's highly unusual.
"The pharmacists are really good about ,they can sense when something is not right and that's what this pharmacist did," said Jim McLean, the Assistant Police Chief for the city of Pflugerville.
The pharmacist called Advanced Pain Care in Round Rock, where the prescriptions supposedly initiated. The office manager said D'Amour's wife was a patient there, but Donald D'Amour was not.
Police were called and D'Amour was arrested. Round Rock assistant chief of police, Tim Ryle said D'Amour showed no signs of being addicted to medication.
"We didn't have any kind of evidence. We had no indication, behavior wise, that any of that may have happened. Irregardless it doesn't matter. In this line of work you can't be committing crimes," Ryle said.
Investigators have information that D'Amour may have called in phony prescriptions to at least one other drug store in Pflugerville. However the Travis County District Attorney is only pursing the two charges that involve a class 3 narcotic. D'Amour bonded out of jail.
