Carr sentencing moved to December

Published 11:25 am Friday, November 21, 2014

Sentencing for the live-in girlfriend of a physician accused of supplying her drug habit has been moved to December.

Circuit Judge M. James Chaney is set to sentence Patti Carr, who shares a home with Dr. Lawrence Francis Chenier III at 100 Colonial Drive, at 10 a.m. Dec. 2, the judge’s office announced Thursday.

Sentencing had been set for Nov. 14.

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Carr pleaded guilty in September to five counts of prescription forgery.

Prosecutors say Chenier wrote 73 prescriptions for painkillers to Carr under assumed names over a period of months before narcotics agents raided their home in September 2011. In October, Chenier was found not guilty of conspiracy but jurors failed to reach a verdict on 73 counts of prescription forgery.

District Attorney Ricky Smith said he is considering whether to re-try Chenier, who lives in Vicksburg but practices medicine in Tallulah.

Throughout Chenier’s trial, defense attorneys contended that Carr stole the doctor’s prescription pad and forged the prescriptions herself. She denied the allegations.

During a sentencing hearing in September, Carr told the court that she had entered drug treatment and had been taking Suboxone — a drug used to block the effects of painkillers.

Her defense attorney, John Bullard, argued that Carr was a good candidate for Ninth Circuit Drug Court.

Drug court allows nonviolent offenders to avoid jail time by undergoing a series of treatment programs. Those sentenced to the drug court program must check in with court officials once a week.

Carr has testified on numerous occasions that she became addicted to hydrocodone after having extensive dental work. She told deputies after she was arrested that she would take as many as 90 pills per day.

Narcotics agents found about 300 empty pill bottles in the home Carr and Chenier share on Colonial Drive. Many of the bottles were stuffed into a plastic bag in a closet of the bedroom the couple shares, persecutors said.