Steve Patton is shown from a “PlentyOfFish” online dating service in 2013 trying on many expressions (and shirts.) The government showed that former pharmacist Patton was trading pills for sex and were able to get him to take a plea to a single count of Illegal Dispensing at his pharmacy, Medicap in Harrisburg, rather than have all of it brought out. It was anyway, when Patton filed to have the 2014 indictment dismissed…and the government fought back.
SALINE CO.—One of Saline County’s better-known big names is now a federal felon.
In a story that Disclosure was following closely when it first emerged in 2012, but which was little but a blip on the radar when charges came down in 2014, Larry Steven Patton, better known as Steve Patton, former pharmacist for Medicap Pharmacy in Harrisburg, was charged last August with a single count of Illegal Dispensation of Controlled Substance.
The matter was handed down as an indictment August 20, 2014, two years and three weeks to the day when numerous government agents descended on Medicap Pharmacy in Harrisburg, situated just behind Huck’s on U.S. 45/Commercial Drive, and began an inventory of controlled substances—pills—in the business.
The ultimate outcome of that investigation lead to the conclusion that on or about July 12, 2012, Patton, a registrant authorized to dispense controlled substance, knowingly and intentionally dispensed four pills unlawfully; these were each two milligrams of Xanax. The indictment stated that in doing so, he acted outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.
Who was it that was wired?
It’s never been made clear to whom Patton “dispensed” (gave) the pills after his attorney fought with federal prosecutors over the indictment and videotape that caught Patton; however, for a long time, it was speculation that it was Carolyn
Carolyn Glore McGhee, known as “Butter” McGhee (because everything about her is nice to look at “butter” face), was arrested in the fall of 2012 and only just got off probation for her controlled substance felony. While jailed at Saline County Detention Center, she was complaining about “Steve” needing to “get her out of there” or she was “going to start talking.” Problem was…she may already have done so. But federal court records don’t make that clear.
Glore Thaxton McGhee, the Hardin County woman formerly of Harrisburg who has as many nicknames as she has surnames (“Butter” and “Grinch” being among that number) and who herself is now a convicted felon thanks to her own antics.
Even Patton’s hubris under his charges, however, wherein he brought about revelation of all the pills-for-sex he was trading and the initials of the women he’d conducted business with, failed to clarify whether it was indeed McGhee who was wired and sent in to Patton on July 12, 2012, in order to nail him for such trade, something he’d long been rumored in Harrisburg and its surrounds to have been doing.
The court record, however, shows that someone, a female, wired up and got involved with Patton to the extent that the government got him on that very serious charge.
The suggestion that it was McGhee came after she was busted for moving pills herself on two dates: May 23 and June 13, 2012, to a “confidential source” who turned out to be Inspector Will Sandusky of the Southern Illinois Drug Task Force.
After she outed herself by getting busted for delivering a substance containing hydrocodone to Sandusky, she became part of the investigation into where she obtained the pills…and that turned up Patton’s pharmacy, Medicap.
McGhee had a hard time while locked up in Saline County Detention Center, where it was said that she was telling people on recorded phone calls to “Tell Steve to get me OUT of here!” and that if someone didn’t post her bond soon, she was going to “start talking” about her “little black book.”
Whether that was the case or not remains unknown.
Steve likes em ugly
It had been speculated for years that Patton, who has a penchant for very unattractive women, had been seeing McGhee. His ex, Linda, finally got tired of the rumors and, a few weeks after the federal agents descended upon their business July 31, 2012, she got tired of everything else, too, decided to dispose of her husband in the process. She ended up with the pharmacy, and he ended up on online dating sites about a year later, trying to catch “a girl to change my life” on plentyoffish.com.
There was no indication, by the time of that posting (late 2013), that McGhee was anywhere near Patton. However, when the indictment actually came down, and Patton was facing his accusers last year, he filed, by way of his attorney Glenn Davis, a motion to dismiss the indictment and a motion to suppress, or otherwise exclude, video and audio recordings, this in October of 2014.
The memorandum of law Patton’s attorney filed indicated that the indictment should be dismissed on grounds of entrapment, and should suppress or otherwise exclude the July 12, 2012, video and audio recordings under either the Fourth Amendment of Federal Rule of Evidence 403.
In this memorandum, Davis noted that the defense of entrapment consists of two elements: government inducement of the crime; and a lack of predisposition on the part of Patton to engage in criminal conduct.
He then noted the five factors that help inform whether the defendant had the necessary predisposition to commit the charged offense: the character or reputation of the defendant; whether the suggestion of criminal activity was originally made by the government; whether the defendant was engaged in criminal activity for a profit; whether the defendant evidenced a reluctance to commit the offense, overcome by government persuasion; and the nature of the inducement or persuasion offered by the government.
The argument; “excellent reputation”
“The most important factor is whether the defendant exhibited a reluctance to commit the offense that government agents overcame,” Davis wrote by way of argument.
He then went on to espouse Patton’s “excellent reputation.”
“Before the events in 2012, Patton had not been the subject of any regulatory investigations or complaints, an unblemished period dating back to 1974,” Davis wrote. “Patton also had an exemplary civic reputation. He served on the Foundation Board for the Harrisburg Medical Center, participated in the hospital’s annual fundraiser, volunteered at the health clinic, sponsored a Little League team, officiated youth football team games, and employed nine or ten people in the community. Finally, Patton had not been the subject of any other legal matters, either civil or criminal.”
Enter “the CS”
Then Davis went on to write that “on July 9, 2012, members of the DEA St. Louis Field Division and Illinois State Police interviewed Carolyn McGhee. According to a Report of Investigation, Patton and McGhee had been friends for the past several years. The report implies that Patton had provided back pain medications to McGhee, who could not afford her prescription for them, in the past without remuneration but had discontinued doing so. On information and belief, McGhee has subsequently pled guilty to distribution of controlled substances.
“Three days later the Illinois State Police arranged for a confidential source, who pled guilty to drug trafficking charges in September of 2012, to call Patton so that Patton could be induced to sell pills to this confidential source. Having recently committed to stop providing a friend with pain medication for her back pain, the government nonetheless overcame Patton’s commitment and induced him to sell prescription drugs to the confidential source. The government’s own Report of Investigation bears this out. According to the synopsis of the undercover operation on July 12, 2012, Patton told the confidential source that ‘he could not and would not give [the source] drugs.’ When the confidential source persisted, Patton stated he could provide the confidential source with some money. The confidential source then suggested that they meet at the pharmacy. Once at the pharmacy, the confidential source repeatedly pressed Patton for a couple of Xanax. ‘After a back and forth discussion over the pills,’ Patton finally ‘said OK to [the source].’ The confidential source then told Patton that she wanted some Xanax to calm her nerves. It was after this third refusal that Patton finally relented and provided the source with the Xanax.”
Employees back him up
“The government’s subsequent interviews with employees of Medicap Pharmacy provide additional evidence that the government suggested the criminal activity,” Davis wrote. “Amy Phipps, an employee at the pharmacy, told the government that ‘she was not aware of any incidents where Patton retrieved medication from the pharmacy shelf and left the pharmacy, nor was she aware of any incidents where the pharmacy was missing controlled substances.’
“Christine King, a twenty-year veteran of the pharmacy, told the government that while Patton’s behavior was peculiar and that she believed he was meeting mistresses, she had ‘never witnessed any theft or illegal distribution of controlled substances by Patton.’ Kimberly Fromm, Medicap Pharmacy’s full-time pharmacist for the past five years, stated that she was not aware of anything that would require the presence of investigators. She added that she had never observed any activity or behavior by Patton that she considered to be suspicious or worrisome. Finally, Patton’s wife, Linda, who also worked at the pharmacy, stated that she had no knowledge of her husband providing pills to anyone without a valid prescription.”
Under these auspices, Davis was asking for the indictment to be dismissed, since it was his opinion that the government hadn’t overcome the burden of proving that there wasn’t undue suggestion that Patton commit a crime.
Unfortunately, Davis might not have been aware that Patton had, for years, been alleged to have been trading pills for sexual favors from the unattractive women he craved, including not only McGhee, but also another local felon, Tara Sherrod, as well as others.
It’s not like Patton’s proclivities weren’t publicized: This information came out at trial in 2010, when Tim Monroe was convicted of trafficking cocaine…and McGhee was one of the witnesses.
Asks to strike video
Davis also took issue with a video that had been made of “the CS’” encounter with Patton:
“In this case, the video recording from July 12, 2012 is so grainy and dark and the audio so garbled that it is nearly impossible to determine what it depicts or what has transpired. Yet, the dark setting and furtive appearance of the video is unfairly suggestive of misconduct. The recording occurred well after 8:00 P.M. As a result, any attempt to show this video to a jury would unfairly prejudice Patton, confuse the issues, and mislead the jury. Indeed, courts frequently exclude evidence of a similarly unclear nature – particularly where officers or confidential sources are available to otherwise testify about the events.”
Tara Sherrod is likely the “TS” whom the government said was also receiving pills from Steve Patton while he was still at Medical Pharmacy in Harrisburg. Sherrod is one of a half-dozen or so women with whom Patton had been alleged for years to have a bizarre penchant toward, none of them considered the best-looking of the bunch. It was said that Patton selected unattractive women with drug problems to have affairs with so that not only would no one else come along and take them from him, but so that he could control them and they wouldn’t, as a consequence, get him in trouble. That turned out to not be the case, however, with at least one of them: Carolyn Glore McGhee.
He put forth substantial case law showing why, in his estimation, the video shouldn’t be used…but the court didn’t see it that way, and the video evidence—and the indictment—stood.
This was determined decisively when the government got involved and revealed the rest of what they were holding close to the vest: the investigation and what it turned up.
And that apparently proved to be a bit much for Davis, as well as for Patton, who, it appeared, had been lying to his attorney about what was REALLY going on with the women and the pills…nothing really unusual, as guilty defendants often lie to their attorneys.
But this was quite the lie.
Government busts him out
In response, on October 29, 2014, the government wrote about Patton that he “has been providing pills to several different women in an attempt to gain sexual favors since 2006. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has determined that Patton’s pharmacy had thousands of Xanax and Hydrocodone pills unaccounted for over a two-year period.”
Specifically, they stated, Medicap was missing 6,372 Hydrocodone/APAP 7.5/325 mg tablets.
“The investigation revealed that Patton was providing pills to at least the four following women: TS, BG, CM and the CS. Patton had a relationship with TS for which he provided her with prescription medication without a prescription since 2006 until just before the search warrant was executed in 2012. CM had a similar relationship.”
Sources have indicated that “TS” is Tara Sherrod; CM could be Carolyn McGhee. If “CM” is McGhee, then who “the CS” is remains a mystery.
“Patton first met the CS approximately seven years ago and a sexual relationship ensued,” the government’s argument proceeded. “The CS was being prescribed 120 Hydrocodone tablets and Patton would provide the CS with 150 tablets, rather than the prescribed amount. Additionally, Patton was providing the CS with an unlabeled prescription bottle of 50-60 Hydrocodone tablets every other month. The CS never paid for any of the prescriptions or unlabeled bottles, a trend that would continue for the next seven years. Patton even provided the CS with keys to the pharmacy for several hours earlier in 2012; providing her with pills without him there.”
‘Sugar Daddy’
“Around October 2011,” the government wrote, “the CS began receiving 5 mg, 7.5 mg and 10 mg stock bottles of Hydrocodone tablets from Patton. The CS estimates that she received one 500 count bottle and three or four 100 count bottles between October 2011 and July 2012. Patton often made sexual advances toward the CS, which the CS would promise, even if she never delivered on. Additionally, Patton would provide the CS with cash on a bi-weekly basis ranging anywhere from $200-$800 and Patton also purchased at least ten (10) vehicles for the CS over the past seven years. The CS referred to Patton as her ‘sugar daddy.’
“In a previous interview with the DEA, the CS described how a normal transaction with Patton occurs. The CS stated that she would call Patton at Medicap Pharmacy, where he worked during normal business hours and make arrangements to meet him after work. Patton usually had the CS meet him at the Elk’s Lodge bar where she would suggest that they go to the pharmacy. Once there she would ask Patton for pills which he would subsequently give. The CS said that Patton is often hesitant but would always end up giving them to her.”
On July 12, 2012, ISP conducted an investigation that resulted in the acquisition of four Xanax pills, the government wrote. The pills were received by the CS from Patton at Medicap Pharmacy. Surveillance for the purchase was conducted by the Southern Illinois Drug Task Force and DEA.
“The CS called Patton while he was working at Medicap Pharmacy asking if Patton could meet in person later that evening,” documents state. “Patton told the CS to meet him as usual at 9:00 p.m. outside of the Elk’s Lodge bar. At 8:57 p.m., the CS arrived at the bar and parked next to Patton’s vehicle. After suggesting they go to the pharmacy, Patton and the CS drove their respected vehicles to Medicap Pharmacy.”
The video
The government’s documents go on to explain what’s on the video:
Upon arrival, no words are exchanged as Patton unlocks the doors. After entering the pharmacy office, the CS and Patton resume their conversation and the CS asks for pills. Eventually Patton pulls his penis out of his pants and tells the CS “Just touch it, come here and touch it.” The CS refuses and then confronts Patton.
CS: “I fuck you for drugs, is that it?”
Defendant: “You’re good at it.”
CS: “Well I’m glad somebody thinks so.”
“Patton illegally distributed to the CS four, 2 mg Xanax pills and adds ‘that’s strong shit,’” the documents show. “The CS then thanks Patton and quickly leaves, but not before Patton says ‘if you don’t come here, I’ll never see you again’ in an attempt to gain sexual favors in exchange for the pills. Patton later learned that the CS had taped the transaction and requested TS, one of the other girls he was providing with pills, to have a look around the CS’s home for the tape.” This lends to the viability that “the CS” might have indeed been Carolyn McGhee, as the two are friends.
During his interview, the government contended, Patton admitted to illegally giving 10 to 12 pills of Xanax and Hydrocodone to the CS from time to time.
“Patton estimated that he gave them about once of month over a two-year period. Patton admitted to having a sexual relationship with the CS over the last couple of years. He admitted that the affairs would take place inside the pharmacy after hours, he would allow the CS in the pharmacy alone, and he would give her pills from an unmarked prescription bottle. Patton admitted he knew it was wrong,” they wrote.
The rebuttal of Patton’s argument
The government stated, therefore, that there was no entrapment because Patton was “predisposed to commit a violation.
“Patton took an ordinary, albeit frequent and common, opportunity to illegally distribute a controlled substance on July 12, 2012; thus he was predisposed to commit the crime. Patton has distributed controlled substances over a seven-year period out of Medicap Pharmacy to various women in an attempt to gain sexual favors, even going as far as allowing the CS the keys to the pharmacy for several hours. As usual, Patton received a phone call from the CS, met her outside the Elk’s Lodge bar and then went with the CS to the pharmacy to provide her with pills. There was nothing out of the ordinary compared to their previous transactions. It was the same opportunity to distribute pills that Patton had taken advantage of repeatedly over a seven year period.
“Patton sought sexual favors in return for the pills. While the CS never gave him any money, she provided him an opportunity for sexual conduct. Despite the CS’s history of breaking those promises, he provided pills hoping that she would fulfill her promises. It is also worth noting that the CS never threatened Patton with harm or coercion if he failed to provide the pills.
“Patton was not reluctant to distribute pills. While Patton did say ‘no’ prior to giving the CS pills, this was part of the normal routine. The transaction took place exactly as the CS indicated it would when she met with DEA agents three days prior. Patton only verbally refused to provide pills in hope of receiving a sexual favor prior to the distribution, as evidenced by pulling out his penis around the time the pills were provided. If Patton was not predisposed to commit the crime he would not have driven to the pharmacy or agreed to meet with the CS. It is highly unlikely that Patton did not know what the CS’s motive was to meet up on July 12, 2012. If he truly was reluctant to provide her with pills, he would not have agreed to see her. The pattern of activity over multiple years clearly establishes that Patton was predisposed to committing the offense.
“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, it is clear that Patton was not entrapped. Repeatedly providing the CS and other girls with pills over a seven-year period proves that he was predisposed on July 12, 2012. Thus, this Court should not answer a question that is for the jury to decide and deny Patton’s motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Quick response on Patton’s part
Citing case law, the government also argued that the video, while a poor quality, should be allowed in as evidence.
“The video recording from July 12, 2012 is a recording of the transaction for controlled substances that occurred between Patton and the CS,” the government stated. “While the video isn’t high definition quality, the audio clearly depicts an accurate record of the transaction. The dark setting of the video only reflects the time of the day in which the transaction occurred. It is highly unlikely that a video shot at night is so ‘suggestive of misconduct’ because of the darkness that it could suggest to jurors, on an emotional basis, that Patton is guilty.
“This video does not confuse the issues or have any remote chance of misleading the jury. There is no additional content other than the transaction on the video. The video is highly relevant because it captures the transaction that Patton is charged with.”
With the government’s response filed Oct. 29, Patton withdrew his not guilty plea on November 20.
After a little bit of wrangling about a presentence investigation report, on April 1 of this year, Patton was placed on a term of probation for three years as to the single-count indictment. He was fined $3,000 and a special assessment fee of $100. The judgment was signed off by Judge J. Phil Gilbert on April 7 and announced to the public on that day.
McGhee only just got off her probationary period: March 23, 2015; she still owes $2,303.02 in fines and fees, having already applied $2,740 (likely bond money) to the more than $5,000 assessed against her as part of her sentence.
The outrage many in Saline County feel over the entire matter, and the fact that Patton seems to have gotten off lightly, might be tempered with the possibility that, given what Patton was facing if he didn’t enter a plea, he likely coughed up enough names of pill abusers to make it worth the feds’ while.
Patton currently lives in Marion. There has been no specific information issued regarding what he’s now doing with his time, other than looking for unattractive women through online dating services.
Medicap Pharmacy in Harrisburg recovered from the big raid conducted in late July 2012; the Patton’s marriage, however, did not. Linda Patton, a pharmacist herself, ended up with the place in a restructuring of the corporation (conducted by their corporate attorney, Robert Wilson, who was on the premises July 31, 2012 when agents of all sorts were poring over pharmacy records), and promptly got divorced thereafter.