SALT LAKE CITY — A paramedic with an 18-year history working for the Unified Fire Authority has been charged with prescription fraud.
Bruce Bergdahl, 44, of Brigham City, was charged July 25 in 1st District Court with three counts of obtaining prescription drugs under false pretenses, a third-degree felony. He will appear in court Aug. 27.
Bergdahl obtained prescriptions for controlled substances on three occasions — once in January and twice in March — without informing the physician he had already been prescribed controlled substances by other doctors, according to the charges.
Bergdahl was arrested in May after the Unified Fire Authority began investigating discrepancies in its supplies of controlled substances, though Chief Michael Jensen said at the time it didn't appear Bergdahl was connected to the missing medication. But authorities learned of Bergdahl's alleged actions — and those of Unified Fire Assistant Chief Marlon Jones — as part of that investigation.
Jones, 48, was charged with 14 counts of obtaining a prescription under false pretenses, a third-degree felony. Jones, also accused of seeking out multiple physicians to obtain prescriptions, was charged May 10, the same day Unified Fire Authority announced its investigation.
— McKenzie Romero