Parole Agent Allegedly Stole Prison Funds to Buy Parolee’s Prescription Drugs

A parole agent has a court date pending after being arrested for using California prison funds to buy a parolee’s prescription hydrocodone pills.

Scott Patric Keblis, 49, of Chino, is charged with one felony count of embezzlement by a public employee and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance, and a conviction could send him to state prison for three years and county jail for a year, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors add that would make Keblis “ineligible to ever hold any office of honor, trust, or profit in California.”

He was a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation parole agent on Nov. 5, 2015, when his superiors received an anonymous tip that he was exchanging out-of-state bus passes for a parolee’s prescription drugs, the OCDA claims.

On Nov. 23, 2015, Keblis obtained two bus passes and two $40 Target gift cards from the CDCR, claiming he needed to give them to a parolee under his supervision, the OCDA alleges.

But later that day, Keblis drove his state vehicle to Huntington Beach to meet a different parolee who was not under the parole agent’s supervision, exchanging the bus passes, gift cards, and $30 of his personal money for 26 prescription hydrocodone pills.

Hydrocodone is an opioid pain medication marketed as Lortab, Vicodin and Norco. It can be highly addictive, and among its street names are Vics, Vicos, Hydros, Lorris and Watsons.

After an eight-month investigation, Keblis was arrested by CDCR Internal Affairs officers on Wednesday. He was released from custody after posting $20,000 bond and has a court date that has not yet been set.

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