4 arraigned on forged Rx charges

Four people arrested last week for forging prescriptions for narcotic or opiate painkillers from CVS drugstores are due back in court on Tuesday.

In one case, Irene Cicolello, 33, of Copiague, was accused of pretending to be a doctor or nurse practitioner and phoning in prescriptions for oxycodone to five different CVS drugstores on seven occasions beginning on Oct. 23 and ending Friday, police said. She used the names of real doctors and patients; police didn't say how she obtained the names or how she was ultimately caught.

In the other case, Kwame Lake, of Hempstead, used a forged prescription, for promethazine with codeine, at a CVS drive-through on North Central Avenue in Valley Stream, police said. It wasn't clear whether Lake had gotten the prescription, which typically comes as a syrup, when the drugstore realized the prescription was forged, or how the store got a description of the vehicle Lake was driving.

Police later found Lake, searched the vehicle and found 10 blank prescriptions three forged prescriptions written for promethazine with codeine, and five bottles with more than two ounces of the same syrup, police said. They arrested Lake, 19, and two others in the car, Kason Parker and Marlon Douglas, both 21. All are from Hempstead.

Charges against Lake, Parker and Douglas include possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Lake is also charged with an additional count of possession of a forged instrument. Charges against Cicolello include falsifying business records, criminal impersonation and identity theft.

All four were arraigned on Saturday at First District Court in Hempstead.

Cicolello was ordered held on a total of $140,000 bond or $70,000 cash bail for each of the seven charges she faced. Parker and Douglas were each ordered held on $5,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail. Lake was freed on $2,000 bond.

All four are due back in court on Tuesday.

Oxycodone is an opiate used to treat moderate to severe pain. Illegal users of oxycodone, nicknamed Oxy, sometimes crush and snort the drug.

Promethazine with codeine, nicknamed purple drank or sizzurp, can be used illegally and lead to sedation and altered consciousness. Its legal use includes treating cough, allergies and cold symptoms. It helps suppress a cough.

With Jennifer Barrios