DATE: Saturday, August 30, 1997             TAG: 9708300419

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   50 lines

THREE MEN INDICTED IN PRESCRIPTION DRUG CASE PHARMACISTS, SALESMAN ACCUSED OF SELLING DRUGS FROM ALBEMARLE HOSPITAL.

The former chief pharmacist at Albemarle Hospital, a prominent Edenton pharmacist and a Wilmington man have been indicted after a three-year investigation on charges involving illegal sales of prescription drugs.

A grand jury in Wilmington indicted Harry B. Umphlett Jr., 64, of Elizabeth City; John A. Mitchener III, 55, of Edenton; and pharmaceutical salesman Robert Ray Bunn, 61, of Wilmington on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and selling, purchasing and trading prescription drugs purchased by a public hospital.

If convicted, Umphlett and Bunn could each receive prison sentences of up to 33 years and be fined up to $1.7 million. Mitchener could get eight years' imprisonment and a $500,000 fine.

Umphlett was fired from Albemarle Hospital in January 1995 after investigators found that he allegedly bought more drugs than needed at the hospital and sold them to a drug salesman.

The indictment alleged that the drugs had been sold to Bunn, a salesman at the time with Bergen Brunswig Corp. of Raleigh.

Bunn shipped the stolen drugs to Mitchener's Pharmacy, where Mitchener and his father, John A. Mitchener Jr., sold them to the public, the 14-page indictment charged. The Mitcheners, Bunn and Umphlett shared the profits, it alleged.

The indictment did not include the amount of drugs that allegedly were sold illegally or how much money Albemarle Hospital lost.

John A. Mitchener Jr. died in October 1995 while the investigation was in progress. The drug diversion took place from September 1989 to January 1995, according to the indictment.

The initial complaint came from Doug Fairfax, chief executive officer at Albemarle Hospital at the time, said District Attorney Frank Parrish, who began the investigation but shortly turned it over to the U.S. attorney. ``The complaint came to him from someone working in the pharmacy,'' Parrish said.

Umphlett had been a pharmacist at Albemarle Hospital since 1969 and earned about $65,000 annually.

John Mitchener Jr. was a former mayor of Edenton and ran the pharmacy with his son. John Mitchener III was on the Chowan County school board for 12 years, serving as its chairman for four years.

No court date has been set.

``I wasn't aware of the indictment,'' said David Harris, chairman of the Albemarle Hospital Board of Trustees. ``We were not certain if anything was going to be pursued or not. They had said they would probably take it court, but there never was anything definite.''

Keith Bulla of the State Bureau of Investigation headed the investigation.

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