Wal-Mart four appear in Mercer County Court

Former Wal-mart Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were in Mercer County Court today, March 18 for preliminary hearings.

Robert Osborn (Pharmacist) was first at the bench with Judge Pentuic presiding. His pretrial is set for May 19. Next up was Paul DeWilde (Pharmacist) he has a pretrial date of May 5. Tara Speck (pharmacy technician) was previously appointed public defender Daniel Dalton, but due to a conflict of interest (as he was also appointed to another defendant pertaining to the same case), Judge Pentuic appointed Nathan Nieman as Speck's new representation. Without a lawyer her case did not move forward. A new preliminary hearing was set for Speck for April 7. Laura Diehl (pharmacy technician) appeared with public defender Dan Dalton, her pretrial was set for May 12. Osborn, DeWilde, and Diehl all plead not guilty, and one by one waived their right to a preliminary hearing. The three asserted their right to a trial by jury.

After an internal investigation performed by the Asset Protection Manager of Wal-Mart (Pekin), each of the four former Wal-Mart employees were charged with Count 1, forgery, Count 2, unlawful possession of a controlled substance (except Laura Diehl who was charged with Count 2 unlawful delivery of a controlled substance), and and Count 3 insurance fraud.