A week after a Penn Township man pleaded guilty to writing fake prescriptions for thousands of opiate pills, police charged a second man who they said was involved in the scheme.
Curtis A. Stewart, 55, of North Huntingdon, was charged Thursday with acquisition by misrepresentation, forgery, identity theft, criminal use of a communication facility and related charges. Penn Township police and agents with the state attorney general’s office said he worked with Joseph G. Sapp, 55.
Sapp, a nurse practitioner, pleaded guilty Aug. 22 to charges including acquisition by misrepresentation, forgery, criminal use of a communication facility, according to court records. A sentencing date has not been set.
According to the complaint filed Thursday, Sapp picked Stewart up at a New Stanton hotel on numerous occasions between September and November. The pair went to pharmacies in Westmoreland and Fayette counties and came out with bags of pills, authorities said. Stewart did not have an attorney listed in online court records. He could not be reached. The charges were sent by summons and a preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 1.
Investigators arrested Sapp in March after executing search warrants at 19 locations, examining trash put out at his home and doing surveillance following a tip from county sheriff’s deputies.
As a nurse practitioner, Sapp was permitted to write prescriptions while under the supervision of a physician. But physicians who Sapp worked with in the past told investigators they weren’t aware he was still using their authority to write prescriptions, according to court papers.
Sapp was licensed by Pennsylvania as a registered nurse in 1995 and as a certified registered nurse practitioner since 2006, state records show. Both of those licenses were last renewed in April 2023.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.