By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
The former medical director of the Sacramento County Jail is again suspected of writing an illegal prescription, according to Sacramento police.
A Sacramento Police Department spokesman said that on Friday Peter Dietrich (booking photo left from last year's arrest) went to a pharmacy inside a Safeway in midtown to pick up a prescription and was arrested.
Pharmacy staff had been notified by state investigators that if Dietrich went to the store to get a prescription they were to notify police, which they did, the spokesman said.
Earlier in the day, police said, Dietrich had ordered a prescription for Vicodin, a narcotic pain reliever, for someone else. He indicated he would pick it up, police said.
Dietrich was arrested on suspicion of writing a fraudulent prescription, police said.
Dietrich has surrendered his license, according to the California Medical Board website.
Dietrich entered his no-contest plea last year on previous charges.
Dietrich was placed on probation for four years and ordered to serve 60 days with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department work project, according to an online court records. He was also ordered to perform 600 hours of community service.
State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement agents arrested Dietrich on Jan. 14, 2009 after finding that he had been writing an unusually high number of prescriptions for OxyContin, a powerful, highly addictive painkiller. BNE agents suspected that Dietrich had been writing the illegal prescriptions for himself.
At the time, Dietrich had been in charge of medical operations at the downtown jail and the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center for a year and a half.
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.









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