Florida nurse arrested for trafficking oxycodone to former patients, cops say

A registered nurse and former legal assistant to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Friday and faces several counts of trafficking oxycodone, along with other charges, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Jodi Levins, 52, of Winter Haven, was arrested Friday morning and faces 32 counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, six counts of criminal use of personal ID, and seven counts of trafficking in oxycodone. An undercover investigation revealed Levins had been writing fraudulent prescriptions for former patients of hers after she was fired from a doctor’s office, deputies said.

Deputies say she picked up the prescriptions at pharmacies “on her former patient’s behalf.”

Investigators say the pharmacies she used to get the drugs were the Quick N Save, at 722 E. Memorial Blvd. in Lakeland, and a Publix at 2515 South Florida Ave., also in Lakeland.

Levins, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, also worked for the sheriff’s office and was first hired in 1987 to work in telecommunications. She transferred to crime scene a year later and then went to legal affairs in 1998 as a legal assistant, detectives said. She resigned in 2005.

She was taken into custody by deputies Friday at her current place of employment, Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine at 1021 Lakeland Hills Blvd.

The sheriff’s office initially was contacted Nov. 2 by a doctor who told deputies he had employed Levins as a nurse practitioner. He said that when he fired Levins, she took his prescription pads and started to prescribe medication, and said some were for oxycodone. He added that Levins also attempted to use the same prescription pad but tried to change the information to a new employer.

After further investigation, detectives determined that Levins was treating and prescribing the drug to 10 patients in Polk County. The majority of the patients are in assisted-living facilities, deputies said.

Levins was positively identified as the person obtaining the prescriptions via video surveillance, the transaction history and her signature, detectives said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is in the process of revoking her license and DEA number, detectives reported.

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Florida nurse arrested for trafficking oxycodone to former patients, cops say."