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Ex-nurse pleads guilty to forging doctor’s signature for painkillers

A woman who took advantage of her job as a nurse at Ecker Plastic Surgery Center to fraudulently write and fill over 100 prescriptions for painkillers pleaded guilty in Lycoming County Court Friday.

Gina Campana, 60, of 1200 Cherry St., began forging Dr. Herbert A. Ecker Jr.’s signature on prescription slips beginning five months after she was hired in November of 2013, according to an affidavit filed by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Campana’s job gave her access to blank prescription slips and a fax machine in the office that she used to write out and send fraudulent slips to six pharmacies in the region to get more than 6,000 pills.

Ecker was shown those prescription slips and told investigators he never wrote them, according to the affidavit.

Campana wrote and filled 118 prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxycodone and Tylenol with codeine at various pharmacies in the area including 507 Hepburn St.; Giant, 1969 E. Third St.; Target at Lycoming Crossing; Wal-Mart in Montoursville, and the Rite Aid outlets at 14 Fifth St. and at 1913 E. Third St.

Campana turned herself in and was arraigned in July, according to court documents.

She pleaded guilty to six consolidated counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation – a felony that could give her a maximum sentence of five years in a state prison, President Judge Nancy L. Butts.

Even though there is a plea agreement by the Commonwealth for a county sentence, the fact that it is an open plea means there is no guarantee, Butts said.

More specifics about what Campana could serve will come out during a pre-sentencing investigation by the adult probation office.

Campana is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 28.

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