Authorities allege drug ring inside Sulphur nursing home

Director of Nursing Jackie Allen Alexander, 63, and Melanie A. Kirby, 39, the assistant director of nursing, were charged Tuesday in Murray County District Court with multiple counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud or forgery, conspiracy to obtain and conspiracy to distribute.

The women were employees of Callaway Nursing Home.

An audit showed more than 9,000 dosage units of controlled substances had been diverted by employees, said Mark Woodward, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman. More than 8,400 of the dosage units involved the pain medication hydrocodone, he said.

A telephone message left for Alexander was not returned and Kirby does not have a listed telephone number, records show.

The employees are accused of calling in fraudulent prescriptions for hydrocodone for residents of the nursing home, Woodward said.

The majority of the drugs were sold on the streets of Sulphur, he said.

Also charged with multiple drug-related and conspiracy charges were Carrie Billings, 41, Sierra D. Williams, 23, Mackenzie Digby, 30, and Angela Ford, 33.

“These (nursing home) residents had not been prescribed the hydrocodone by doctors,” Woodward said. “There is no evidence that any resident was deprived of their legitimate medications.”