SAN ANTONIO – A Kerrville man was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for stealing medicines from Veterans Affairs patients and selling them for profit.
Scott Mitchell Brown, 38, was a pharmacy technician at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Kerrville.
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According to court documents, Brown devised a scheme to steal medications that were being shipped from the pharmacy to VA patients, stealing the narcotics and selling them for profit to people in the Kerr County area.
Two of the individuals Brown sold the medications to were his co-defendants — John Swiencki and David Jeffrey Hughes Jr. The two broke into mailboxes and stole prescribed narcotics from veterans, using patient records obtained by Brown to identify the mailboxes, federal officials said.
Swiencki was sentenced to one year in prison, and Hughes was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
“Brown’s misuse of his position with the VA is a repugnant betrayal by a public servant against our nation’s veterans,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “These veterans rely on the care and compassion of the VA to assist them with ailments and disabilities. Instead, the veterans victimized by Brown and his codefendants were met with cruelty and greed. My office and the Department of Justice will continue to seek justice for those who have sacrificed so much for our country.”
Brown was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, theft of government property and possession of stolen mail.