Fired officer sues drug store chain, pharmacist

Kim Smith

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

A North Las Vegas police officer who lost her job after a Walgreens pharmacist turned her in as a suspected drug addict filed a lawsuit against the chain and the pharmacist.

Gina Carmody, 27, was fired after the North Las Vegas Police Department received information about her prescriptions from Walgreens pharmacist Scott Larsen.

Larsen, a pharmacist at the North Las Vegas Walgreens at 2280 Las Vegas Blvd. North, contacted the North Las Vegas Police on Aug. 23, 2000, telling police that Carmody, while in uniform, had been in the day before and had a prescription for a controlled substance filled. Larsen also told police that Carmody had prescriptions filled for other narcotics at various pharmacies.

The police sent a detective to the pharmacy later that day, and Larsen gave police a copy of Carmody's patient profile, which detailed her prescriptions and listed doctors and pharmacies she had visited.

Carmody complained to the state Board of Pharmacy. After a hearing in July, Larsen was fined $1,000 and given a seven-day paid suspension for violating patient privacy laws.

Larsen's suspension was stayed, which means the decision goes on his record as an ethics violation, but he doesn't have to miss work. He was also ordered to re-take and pass the law portion of the state licensing exam within 60 days.

Carmody is now suing Walgreens and Larsen alleging slander, libel, negligence and invasion of privacy.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed late Monday afternoon, the information Larsen released supported the "incorrect assumption" that she was an untreated substance abuser and that she was a "danger to herself and to the public" she served.

In fact, at the time Larsen contacted police, Carmody had just been released from Montevista Hospital where she had sought treatment for controlling her dependency to prescribed narcotic pain medication. She was taking the medication for a shoulder injury she sustained at the age of 15.

Because of Larsen's actions, Carmody complains she was interrogated and investigated by her employers and forced to defend herself in a public setting and before the media.

"Plaintiff continues to suffer severe emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment when she encounters her former colleagues and the public she once served as a police officer," the lawsuit states.

During his hearing in July, Larsen said he was acting in the interest of public safety and only wanted to help Carmody. He called the North Las Vegas police not because they were the woman's employer but because they had jurisdiction over the Walgreens on Las Vegas Boulevard North.

Carmody is seeking unspecified damages.