Former CHP Officer Convicted Of Possessing False Prescription Forms

FULLERTON (AP) — The Orange County district attorney's office says a former California Highway Patrol officer has been convicted of possessing blank prescription forms and using them to take paid medical time off from work.

Prosecutors say 46-year-old Deborah Therese Sparso of Anaheim Hills pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor count of manufacturing, copying or reproducing false prescription blank forms.

The forms were used between Sept. 15, 2008, and April 15, 2011, to take excused, paid time off worth more than $11,000. The doctor named on the prescription did not write the note or authorize anyone to do so.

Sparso was sentenced to two years of informal probation, 10 days of community service, and ordered to pay over $5,000 in restitution.

Patrol spokeswoman Fran Clader says Sparso is no longer a CHP officer.

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