2 suspects in clinic break-in arrested

By KENNETH HART
The Independent

ASHLAND October 01, 2008 10:40 pm

— On Wednesday, City police arrested a man and a woman suspected of breaking into a medical clinic the previous day after finding the man passed out at the wheel of his car in a parking lot with a baby in the back seat.
Stephen Hunt, 27, and his sister, Brandy Haines, 33, both of Ashland, were arrested on various drug- and theft-related offenses, according to a news release from the Ashland Police Department.
Police also found items in their vehicle linking them to a burglary on Wednesday at King’s Daughters Medical Center’s Family Care Center on U.S. 60 at Cannonsburg.
Among those items were numerous prescription forms, some of which were blank and others that had been forged, APD Patrol Capt. Todd Kelley said.
He said police received a report about 12:45 a.m. of a person passed out in a vehicle in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Officer Jason Moore responded and found Hunt slumped over the wheel of the car, Kelley said.
A short time later, a woman, later identified as Haines, came out of the store and got into the car. She initially gave police a false name, Kelley said. After her true identity was learned, a computer check revealed she had three outstanding warrants for failure to appear, he said.
Officers found prescription slips, both blank and forged, on Haines, along with items she had allegedly shoplifted from Wal-Mart.
There was a baby in the back seat of the car, Kelley said. The child’s sex was not immediately available, and it wasn’t clear who the child’s parents were.
A search of the vehicle turned up 76 pills of various types. Hunt also had a prescription bottle of Valium, Kelley said.
Officers also found other items in the car linking the pair to the burglary, Kelley said, declining to specify what they were.
Kelley said the evidence collected regarding the clinic break-in was turned over to the Boyd County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the incident.
Haines was charged with illegal possession of prescription blanks, criminal possession of forged prescriptions, misdemeanor theft and receiving stolen property and third-degree possession of a controlled substance.
Hunt was charged with driving under the influence, with aggravating circumstances, third-degree possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor receiving stolen property.
Both suspects were lodged in the Boyd County Detention Center.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.