Tenth Prescription Drug Conspiracy Suspect Pleads Not Guilty
The last of 10 defendants pleaded not guilty Friday in the state district court case related to the federal multistate prescription drug conspiracy allegedly orchestrated by a Casper doctor and his wife.
Roxanne Hagen pleaded not guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to deliver a Schedule IV drug during her arraignment before Natrona County District Court Judge Daniel Forgey.
If convicted, Hagen faces up to two years of imprisonment.
She remains free on bond, and a trial date will be set later.
Nine other defendants whose cases have been bound over for trial have pleaded not guilty.
Five other defendants have been named in the prescription drug conspiracy, and some of them also have been linked to heroin distribution. They have not yet been bound over for trial.
Local, state and federal agencies discovered Hagen and the other defendants during the investigation of Dr. Shakeel Kahn and his wife, Lyn, who are charged in federal court with multiple counts, according to the criminal information document filed in Natrona County Circuit Court.
The 20-page affidavit filed by an agent with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating Kahn in last year after reports he was prescribing abnormally excessive amounts of controlled substances, mostly opiates, in Natrona County. The DEA found people would travel from Fremont County and as far away as Massachusetts to obtain prescriptions for $500 in cash.
As the DEA's investigation progressed, the DCI learned from a patient of Kahn that people would pay $500 in cash a month to him for whatever prescription they wanted, as long as they signed a contract stating they were not wearing a wire, working with law enforcement, and promising to never call the doctor a drug dealer.
There are four counts in the indictment: conspiracy to deliver a Schedule II controlled substance (oxycodone and oxycontin); conspiracy to deliver a Schedule IV controlled substance -- (the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, the generic name for Xanax); and two counts of conspiracy to deliver heroin.
The other defendants in the state district court case are:
- Deni Antelope -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs.
- Dustin Big Medicine -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs.
- Melissa Bishop -- all four counts.
- Charlie Edwards -- all four counts.
- Kathy Marie Hill -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs.
- Tammy Jonas -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs.
- Wilemina Longtine -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs, and conspiracy to deliver heroin.
- Amy Tomlinson -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs.
- Martha Lee Zitterkopf -- conspiracy to deliver Schedule II and Schedule IV drugs.
The Kahns themselves were arrested at their home in Casper on Nov. 30.
They and other defendants Paul Beland, and Shakeel Kahn's brother, Nabeel, remain in custody awaiting trial in federal court.