Revere official in trouble for illegally selling meds

REVERE – A Facebook posting by the School Committee’s Donna Costa Wood Pruitt has her in some hot water.Pruitt, 66, a longtime member of the board who lives at 172 Endicott Ave., was summoned to court Tuesday for distribution of a Class E substance. She will be arraigned at Chelsea District Court June 5 at 8:30 a.m.Pruitt made a Facebook post stating her intent to sell prescription medications Sunday. The post – now deleted – read, “have some brand-new prescriptions ? that were never opened. Inbox me to find out what and how much.”According to Revere Chief of Police Joseph Cafarelli, Pruitt sold medication for diabetes and high blood pressure to an undercover officer, which prompted an investigation conducted by the Revere and State Police. The tablets were Metformin Hcl (500 milligrams) and Actos (45 milligrams).Detective Robert Impemba, of the Criminal Investigations Division, who has attended trainings in social networking, said all Facebook users may be able to view such posts, depending on the user’s’ privacy account settings.”Upon reading a screenshot of this post, I immediately understood this to mean that Donna Costa Wood Pruitt was basically advertising to the Facebook community that she had prescription medication for sale and anyone who was interested should send her an inbox message (private message among Facebook users), if they were interested in learning what the medication was and how much she wanted in exchange for it,” Impemba said.He then set up surveillance in anticipation of a Massachusetts State Police undercover trooper purchasing 16 Actos tablets for $25 May 4 at 2:30 p.m. Pruitt met him at the front doorway, holding a white plastic shopping bag.Although he videotaped the incident using a covert video camera, she wasn’t immediately placed under custody.”To preserve the integrity of the investigation, Donna Costa Wood Pruitt was not arrested at the time of the incident,” Impemba said.According to court officials, the penalty will be imprisonment of not more than nine months; or not less than $250, not more than $2,500, or both. There is also a drug analysis fee between $35 and $100, with maximum fee of $500 for multiple offenses from a single incident.Superintendent of Schools Paul Dakin said the event is still unfolding.”Despite how this unfolds our 1,000 employees and 7,000 students will be giving their best efforts today and every day in school,” Dakin said.