Barrett Oakes Welch (aka Barry Welch), 64, and Patrice Taylor Welch, 54, turned themselves in to law enforcement officials on Feb. 8 after two search warrants were executed at the hospital and at their home in Colington, North Carolina.
According to the Dare County Sheriff’s Office, allegations of inappropriate prescribing, obtaining and misuse of prescription medications led to the search warrants, which were taken out for two places: The Animal Hospital of Nags Head and their home on 100 Sunrise Lane.
Investigators say they took more than 200 pills into evidence from the Animal Hospital. They reportedly found another 100 pills in a cookie jar, baskets and a night stand at their home.
The Sheriff’s Office says Patrice and Barrett were not at the hospital when officials searched the veterinary office. However, they say office staff cooperated in the investigation.
At the center of the investigation against Dr. Barrett Welch and his wife Patrice, is Dr. Logan Botzman, whose name could be seen on the Animal Hospital sign. 10 On Your Side tried contacting Dr. Botzman, but he did not answer. Botzman will be the prosecutor’s star witness.
In the search warrant, Botzman tells the investigator, “Dr. Barrett Welch would take medication from inventory for personal use, and to cover up the shortage [he] would prescribe the medication to his personal pets and pets of family members.”
A former Animal Hospital employee, Dianna Dickenson said, “I was not surprised at all. I knew it was happening. I had investigators and members of the Vet Board ask me about it.”
To not raise any flags, Botzman said, “Dr. Welch would then go into the computer system and discount the medication to where a bill would never be created.”
Dickenson says when she did inventory there were major issues, “The drug count was off by a lot of drugs so I told the owner, Dr. Welch, I wasn’t going to sign the drug log and that he basically needed to fix the drug count before we could finish the drug log.”
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| Reached at his home, Dr. Botzman was polite but did not want to say anything about the criminal investigation |
In the court paperwork, Botzman told the investigator, “In October of 2015 Dr. Welch admitted to him that he had taken Xanax for his own personal use.”
Dickenson says she also confronted Dr. Welch about the shortage of inventory, “He said he would take care of it, and that was the last I heard of it. Less than a week later I got suspended for that.”
The probable case for the search warrant also states, “Dr. Botzman stated that approximately two years ago DEA did a case on Dr. Welch where they found his prescription records were not done correctly and medication missing from the business. The DEA fined Dr. Welch over $20,000 in civil penalties.”
According to court paperwork, Botzman advised investigators Caroline Taylor, stepdaughter of Dr. Barrett Welch and daughter of Patrice Welch, had access to controlled substances, and that she owned a dog that was prescribed a controlled substance.
According to investigators, “Dr. Botzman advised that she [Caroline Elizabeth Taylor] owned a dog and that animal would be prescribed alprazolam or hydrocodone pills, but on 01/08/2016 the name of the dog’s owner was switched to a man named Russell Taylor. This was told to Affiant by Dr. Botzman and done for the reason that [Caroline Taylor] was ALREADY on Federal Probation and did not want to be linked to the prescription medication fraud.”
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| Caroline Taylor, who has served time in FEDERAL PRISON and is CURRENTLY on FEDERAL PROBATION is seen here taking Dr. Botzman's name off the sign to her parents' vet clinic. |
Taylor is not YET charged in this case, but she has served time in a federal prison and is on federal probation for drug charges. This means she could be in violation of her parole.
Capt. Kevin Duprey with the Dare County Sheriffs Office said, “If for some reason she is involved, and I am not saying she is, then we will look at filing charges.”
Oh, I believe sweet Caroline will soon be busted and sent back to federal prison. After she was released from prison, I'm certain she went right back to her drug dealing scams.
Both Barrett and Patrice Welch are facing felony charges of trafficking in opium or heroin. Barrett is also facing a felony obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or forgery charge.
They were released on bond this week and will be back in court March 31.
The Sheriff’s Office says the investigation is ongoing and could lead to additional charges and arrests.
(WAVY - Feb 10, 2016)
All these charges were dropped. There was no evidence. The pills in the house were aspirin and Imodium and random OTC that were in junk drawers. Caroline has also since passed away in an accident. This article has no couth or merit and should be removed.
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