NewsLocal News

Actions

Former part-time UFA firefighter sentenced for stealing drugs from fire station

Posted at 7:43 PM, Jan 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-29 21:43:48-05

PLEASANT GROVE, Utah – A former part time UFA and Lone Peak Fire District firefighter was sentenced to 36 months of probation Jan. 23, after pleading guilty to multiple charges for stealing narcotics from an ambulance.

According to a probable cause statement released by the Pleasant Grove Police Department, James Ivie, 21, was seen climbing pipes under the window of a Pleasant Grove Fire Department on Aug. 6, 2017, the night after it had been broken into, and narcotics had been stolen.

The Pleasant Grove Fire Department had experienced, “four separate thefts of narcotics and medication from their ambulances on or about June 10th, July 26th, August 4th, and August 5th,” the probable cause statement said. “In each incident Fire Department personnel reported ‘narcotic boxes’ missing. The narcotic boxes are kept on the ambulance to be used for patient care.”

Police said that each box contained Fentanyl, Diazapam, Ketamine, Morphine and Midazolam. They were secured with a plastic tag with a number, for tracking purposes.

Police said that evidence was collected that indicated the suspect of the burglaries was entering from the same window Ivie was seen at on the night he was arrested.

The night Ivie was arrested, police said that he was found to have, “an IV catheter port line affixed to his arm and inserted into a vein.”

Police obtained a search warrant for Ivie’s car and later his residence, where the narcotic boxes were located. Police also found a large amount of empty, full and partially full vials of medication, which contained several of the substances that had been taken from the ambulances.

In the probable cause statement, police stated that post Miranda, Ivie admitted to entering the fire department on four separate occasions, with the intent of taking narcotic medication. He also admitted to injecting the substances through the IV port in his arm.

Ivy pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary, two counts of theft, and two counts of possession or use of a controlled substance. A judge suspended more strict sentences, which included jail and prison time.