NEW ORLEANS – Shallon Dunmiles, 35, worked as a receptionist and sole employee of a LaPlace pediatrician in 2017.

It was during that time, authorities said, that the Des Allemands resident began creating fictitious prescriptions for controlled substances using the physician’s prescription pad.

Local police and federal prosecutors said the physician, who was not publicly identified, was not aware of the fraud and cooperated with authorities as the burgeoning criminal enterprise came into focus.

Dunmiles created the fraudulent prescriptions using the physician’s DEA number and forged signature and distributed them. She would handwrite the prescriptions, print prescriptions on tamper-resistant paper using an electronic template or telephone them in to various pharmacies.

Other River Region residents learned that they could obtain fraudulent prescriptions from Dunmiles by providing their personal information, sometimes using their own children’s names to forward the scheme.

While some of the children were patients at the clinic, all of the fraudulent prescriptions were provided without a medical examination and without the knowledge or consent of the physician.

Dunmiles would alter the caption of the physician’s electronic prescription template to refer to a family clinic instead of a pediatric clinic because some of the prescriptions were written in the names of adults.

Dunmiles also directed her co-defendants to specific pharmacies after particular ones questioned the legitimacy of the prescriptions. In some cases, Dunmiles altered the dates on the prescriptions to comply with applicable refill restrictions.

Authorities also said Dunmiles sometimes distributed the actual pills she had fraudulently obtained by filling a prescription rather than distributing the prescription itself.

During a police search of Dunmiles’ home, law enforcement recovered an unused prescription pad belonging to the physician, several medication samples addressed to the physician, a bottle of promethazine with codeine with a damaged prescription label and a prescription bottle for antibiotics for Dunmiles issued under the physician’s name.

Prosecutors said even after Dunmiles’ arrest, the suspect sought to refill a fraudulently obtained prescription for antibiotics in her own name.

According to U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser, Dunmiles, together with Lashonda Melancon of Reserve, Danyelle Tuco of LaPlace, Andrea Stalks of LaPlace, Ebony Stewart of Opelousas, Cortaz Williams of Reserve and Danielle Anderson, 36, of Reserve pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from their 2018 arrests in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Wilfred Perrilloux of Reserve pleaded separately on an earlier date.

Dunmiles and Melancon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and possess with the intent to distribute illicitly obtained prescription medications.

The investigation revealed during the course of the conspiracy, Dunmiles wrote approximately 150 fraudulent prescriptions using her former employer’s prescription pad.

Together with Melancon, Dunmiles distributed the prescriptions, often in exchange for money.

The maximum penalty that Dunmiles and Melancon, 37, face for the conspiracy to distribute is 20 years in jail, a fine of $1 million and at least three years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.

Perrilloux, 43, Stalks, 43, Stewart, Tuco, 32, Williams and Anderson all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to acquire or obtain possession of the prescription medication by misrepresentation.

The investigation revealed these individuals were involved with obtaining the fraudulent prescriptions from Dunmiles and Melancon.

The maximum penalty they face is up to four years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and a year of supervised release.

The Court set sentencing hearings in this matter for April 25 for Perrilloux, June 26 for Dunmiles, Melancon and Stalks and July 10 for Stewart, 33, Tuco, Williams, 32, and Anderson.

Strasser also praised the work of the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Division and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad in investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Shirin Hakimzadeh led the prosecution.

Sheriff’s Office Maj. Tanner Mangano previously told L’OBSERVATEUR police were able to link a lot of people through leg work, traveling to all the pharmacies and obtaining video surveillance of suspects coming in using their IDs for the fraudulent prescriptions.

“We did work hand-in-hand at a certain part of the investigation with St. Charles Parish to actually execute a search warrant at Ms. Dunmiles’ residence, where we recovered a large amount of evidence that ties her even further to the crimes,” Mangano said.