Christopher Petterson, a 67-year-old Jupiter dentist, is facing drug trafficking and fraud charges for writing up fake prescriptions under his patients' names and then filling them at pharmacies for himself, according to police.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says things began to look a tad shady when the office manager of a dental spa where Peterson used to practice got a call from a Walgreen's about a prescription he had allegedly written that seemed fishy.
The office manager contacted the patient whose name was on the prescription, but was told that Petterson had not written him any prescriptions.
Police were alerted, and began to follow the prescription trail. They soon discovered that Petterson had written two separate prescriptions for 70 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills in that one patient's name.
Turns out, Petterson's signature was on three other prescriptions for a total of 100 oxycodone pills made out to another patient. That patient had been treated by Peterson and given three prescriptions. Petterson eventually offered this person cash for the unused pills.
The second prescription was charged to the patient's credit card without their knowledge, but Petterson later claimed that he had to write an emergency prescription for someone else, and had used the patient's name instead.
The man who had his name on the two prescriptions called Petterson while police listened in on the phone call. Petterson told the man the pills were all gone, because he used some for pain he was having. He also claimed to have thrown out the other pills.
Once he was caught, Petterson admitted to police that he has a substance abuse problem, and confessed to writing the prescriptions without his patients' knowledge. He also confessed to taking the oxycodone and hydrocodone himself, crushing them into a powder and snorting them.
In addition to all this, Petterson told cops that he stored fake urine so he could pass any random drug tests that might come his way.
Petterson was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail Thursday afternoon. He released from the jail Friday morning on $45,000 bond.
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