An Izard County couple was placed under arrest Aug. 5 after it was reported 31-year-old Angelique Hickerson had stolen medication from patients and co-workers at her place of employment and her husband, 33-year-old Tadd Hickerson intimidated a witness.
According to the affidavit filed Aug. 5, in July of this year, Hickerson’s employer reported Hickerson had taken Alprazolam, a Schedule IV controlled substance that belonged to a patient.
The day prior to the report being made, one of Hickerson’s co-workers had prepared evening medication for patients and had requested another employee distribute the medication as she had to take a patient to a doctor’s appointment and did not believe she’d be back in time.
When she returned with the patient from the doctor’s appointment, she was informed by the employee charged with distributing the medication that had been moved from its location when she had left the room briefly and that she had noticed a patient’s medication cup was missing the Alprazolam.
The following day, Angelique told a co-worker she struggled with addiction and had taken the patient’s medication.
Through a series of text messages, Angelique asked her employer not to report the incident to authorities and admitted to stealing the medication from the patient’s cup as well as from family members and a co-worker.
In the messages, Angelique allegedly stated she did not steal from patients often because she needed larger doses.
In the same timeframe, the supervisor received messages from Angelique’s husband Tadd offering to donate a bird hunt and firearm through his employment at a nearby hunting ranch.
On July 29, an investigator with the 16th Judicial Drug Task Force was assigned to the case and conducted interviews with several employees.
One of the employees referenced in Angelique’s text messages with her supervisor told investigators she had noted two separate occasions during which she was missing a large quantity of pills from her medication bottle.
On Aug. 3, the investigator met with the Hickersons at the Sheriff’s Department. Angelique admitted to having the conversation with her supervisor and noted she had not deleted any of her messages.
After the interview was completed, the Hickersons left together.
Later that afternoon, Angelique’s supervisor contacted authorities and stated she had received a message from Tadd stating “You have made an enemy of me. A think you will regret.”
As a result, Tadd was charged with intimidating a witness, a class B felony and harassing communications, a class A misdemeanor. Angelique was charged with drug fraud- fraudulent practices, a class D felony.
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