Holly Springs police charge pharmacist embezzled pills

Police on Thursday arrested a Harris Teeter pharmacist at the store where she was working, charging her with embezzling a small quantity of controlled drugs from the store's stock.

Leslie Elizabeth Mangum, 35, of 3821 Olympia Drive in Raleigh, was charged under a section of the state drug law that makes it illegal for someone holding a license to dispense drugs to take any for themselves.

Mangum was at the store at 5277 Sunset Lake Road when she was arrested, records showed.

According to an arrest warrant, police believed Mangum took three hydromorphone one hydrocodone and two lorazepam pills from the store’s inventory.

Controlled drugs, which are kept in locked cabinets at drug stores, are inventoried, and police it was a discrepancy in that count that led officials to notify them and that began the investigation.

Mangum, who was arrested Thursday afternoon, was charged with one felony count of embezzling and three misdemeanor counts of illegal drug possession — one for each of the three drugs involved.

According to State Board of Pharmacy listings, Mangum was first licensed as a pharmacist in North Carolina in 2005 and had her annual license renewal in February.

She initially was held in lieu of $5,000 bail and later released.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Holly Springs police charge pharmacist embezzled pills."