Two Utah firefighters sought a federal appeals court to perk up their lawsuit against the state authorities. The men claimed that the state authorities falsely accused them of prescription drug fraud following a warrantless search of a state prescription drug database.
According to KSL, criminal charges were dismissed later on; however, the lawyers for the two Utah firefighters disagree with the decision. They said that giving police unfettered access to records of all prescription drugs dispensed to patients is illegal.
In fact, more than 40 states in the United States have similar databases. Attorney Michelman of the group Public Citizen said that many of these states don't require police to get a warrant to search the listing. "What's at stake is whether law enforcement can access an individual's prescription records whenever they want, whenever they have a hunch or they want to go on a fishing expedition," the lawyer stated.
The Daily Progress reported that Utah has since passed a law calling for police officers to get a warrant before they can search the prescription drug databases. The case involving the firefighters could set a standard for other states in the region if the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in their favor, as claimed by Michelman.
The Utah firefighters, Ryan Pyle and Marlon Jones, admitted that police in Cottonwood Heights suspected employees might have been involved with a few drug thefts from ambulances in 2013. The police decided to run the names of all 480 paramedics, firefighters, and other employees at Salt Lake County's Unified Fire Authority. The court documents noted that this will only be possible through checking the database to see if any might have a drug problem.
It was also found out that the two firefighters were not connected with the thefts. But detectives alleged they were taking too many painkillers and other medications without informing their doctors about it. With that, the investigators decided to file prescription drug fraud charges against them, as claimed by ABC NEWS.
Pyle and Jones claimed that all the drugs were properly prescribed for various injuries, operations, and other maladies that they had encountered. The prescription drug fraud charges were later dismissed. In turn, the firefighters sued the city of Cotton Heights. They argued that putting their names into the database without probable cause was some kind of invasion with rights to acquire medicines.
Meanwhile, the defense lawyers for the Cotton Heights revealed a few of the court decisions that found police can actually search such records without violating people's rights. A federal judge tried to toss out the court case in October, but the firefighters appealed again on Wednesday.
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