Pharmacist-turned-FBI agent had key role in K.C. investigation

? Licensed pharmacist and FBI agent Melissa Osborne felt as though someone socked a ball into her gut when she learned last summer that Robert R. Courtney was suspected of diluting chemotherapy medications.

“It seemed so unbelievable,” said Osborne, 40, who joined the FBI in 1997.

As one of only a few pharmacists who also carry the badge of an FBI special agent, Osborne was assigned full-time to the case. And her expertise immediately proved instrumental.

“There was no downtime in seeking professional information,” said Special Agent Judy Lewis, who supervises the bureau’s local health task force. “If we needed information on a particular drug or medical practice, we had it right here.”

The investigation led to Courtney’s guilty plea in February to 20 federal charges of tampering with, adulterating and misbranding chemotherapy medications. He awaits sentencing.

As the investigation got under way, lead FBI investigator David Parker began peppering Osborne with questions. The most immediate issue was how to preserve for testing the drugs secured in a sting operation against Courtney.

“Did (the samples) need to be refrigerated? Did they need to be placed on ice? Could they stay at room temperature?” Osborne recalled. “There was a stability question there.”

Experience working at an independent pharmacy in Atlanta helped Osborne prepare affidavits used to obtain warrants to search Courtney’s Research Medical Tower Pharmacy.

She also put together “cheat sheets” with questions for agents to ask the thousand of people who called an FBI hot line after Courtney’s arrest.

“She did a lot to get us prepared to talk with these people,” Lewis said. “She did a lot of talking to people herself.”

Osborne, who was reared in Virginia and educated at the Southern School of Pharmacy at Mercer University in Atlanta, moved to Kansas City in 1998 for her first posting with the bureau. She was working on health-care and telemarketing fraud cases when the Courtney case broke.

“I would have hated to have been in another office when this happened,” Osborne said.

Osborne also was part of a team that debriefed Courtney after his plea. As part of the plea agreement, he agreed to disclose any other criminal activity he committed and any knowledge he has of crimes by others.

Asked to discuss her feelings upon meeting Courtney, Osborne said only that she was angry with him.

Prosecutors said Courtney now has admitted diluting 72 drugs, dating to at least 1992. Federal authorities have suggested the scheme may have affected as many as 400 doctors, 4,200 patients and 98,000 prescriptions.

“I was shocked,” Osborne said of the expanded scope of the case. “I don’t know if you can prepare yourself for that.”