JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A First Coast woman is accused of writing prescriptions at the local weight loss clinic she owns. Police say the problem is, she's not a doctor.
Investigators arrested 53-year-old Holly Shearer Dufresne Thursday, and charged her with practicing or attempting to practice medicine without a valid medical license and delivery of a controlled substance.
According to police reports, officers began looking into practices at the Healthy Outlook, Inc. weight loss clinic on Beach Boulevard back in April as part of an investigation into fraudulent prescriptions for Hydracodone that were filled at area pharmacies.
Eventually, detectives said they were able to determine that Dufresne's daughter, Casie Moore, stole some blank prescription forms from the clinic's managing physician, filled them out, and forged the doctor's signature.
Moore is now in the Duval County Jail facing several drug trafficking charges.
While investigating the fraudulent pain pill prescriptions, a detective contacted the clinic and learned that the "medical assistants" were the ones who worked with the clinic's patients.
Police say further investigation revealed that the managing physician, the person who's supposed to write prescriptions for clinic patients, was only there for a couple of hours every two weeks.
So, JSO said the Department of Health (DOH) sent in an undercover investigator who was reportedly evaluated by Dufresne and prescribed phentermine, a schedule IV controlled substance that's supposed to be prescribed by a license physician.
Another undercover patient received the same treatment, one report said, and a second police report showed that Dufresne wrote prescriptions for weight loss pills for a total of four undercover detectives.
The report also revealed that the DOH warned Dufresne to stop writing prescriptions just weeks before her arrest.
Still, officers said Dufresne continued to pump out the pill prescriptions until she was arrested.
Dufresne has since bonded out. First Coast News went to her house to try to talk to her about the allegations against her. Dufresne never came to the door.
First Coast News also searched the DOH database, looking for any kind of certification Dufresne may have had through them. We found none.
Dufresne is scheduled to be in court next week.
First Coast News