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AHOSKIE – A local nurse faces multiple charges in a criminal case where she is alleged to have written fraudulent prescriptions in an effort to obtain controlled substances.

Elizabeth Leigh Sumner, age 45 of Ahoskie, appeared in Hertford County court this week to answer the charges filed against her by the Ahoskie Police Department. She stands charged with four counts each of identity theft, larceny by employee, trafficking opium or heroin, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud/forgery, obtaining property by false pretense, and embezzle/divert a controlled substance by a regulated employee.

There were other charges: one count each of attempting to traffic opium, attempting to obtain a controlled substance by forgery/fraud, attempting to obtain property by false pretense, and attempting to embezzle a controlled substance.

Ahoskie Police Major Jimmy Asbell said law enforcement became involved in the case in May of this year after a local pharmacy reported what they believed to be fraudulent activity.

Asbell said Sumner was employed as a Hospice nurse at the time she was charged with the crimes.

Ahoskie Police Detective Sgt. Stephen White investigated the case with the assistance of the North Carolina SBI.