Arkansas Business

A former Little Rock Diagnostic Clinic nurse waived indictment and pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. Federal Court to one count of helping the clinic's former CEO obtain about 25,000 hydrocodone pills by fraud.

Catherine L. Minor, 62, aided and abetted the clinic's former CEO, James Derek Johnston, 42, to fraudulently obtain hydrocodone on Feb. 8, 2012, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Little Rock.

Minor will be sentenced at a later date and faces up to four years in federal prison, a fine of $250,000 and one year of probation.

Johnston pleaded guilty on Dec. 18, in U.S. District Court on one count of obtaining hydrocodone by fraud. Both are awaiting sentencing dates.

The news release said Minor worked at the clinic for 15 years before she retired in 2012. Minor admitted that in 2007, Johnston asked her to call in or fax prescriptions for hydrocodone in his name to several pharmacies in Little Rock, the news release said.

About 200 prescriptions in Johnston's name were filed without any prescribing doctor knowing about it, the news release said.