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Mason City woman sentenced to prison in opioid theft case

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September 10th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Mason City woman who pleaded guilty in a case in which prosecutors say burglarized 13 Iowa homes of patients in search of painkillers has been sentenced to more than a year in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors for Iowa say 33-year-old Samantha Jo Rogers was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison. She had pleaded guilty in March to making false statements related to health care matters. Prosecutors dropped other charges in return for her pleas.

The thefts occurred in Cerro Gordo County. Prosecutors say Rogers accessed the private health and residence information of at least 1,900 patients and used that information to show up at patients’ homes, posing as a public health worker recovering opioid medications. On other occasions, Rogers used a crow bar to break down the patients’ doors and steal the narcotics.