PLANTATION POLICE OFFICER TURNS SELF IN; DRUG FRAUD ALLEGED

PLANTATION -- A city police officer turned himself in at the Broward County
Jail on Friday morning after investigators accused him of fraudulently
buying painkillers. Records say the officer had been purchasing Vicodin for
the past three months.

Officer Scott Radius, 25, was charged with two counts of obtaining a
controlled substance by fraud, a felony. He remained at the Broward County
Jail in Fort Lauderdale on Friday night with bail set at $2,000.

Plantation Police Department investigators and the Florida Department of
Law Enforcement became suspicious of Radius' actions in October, police
said. According to department records, detectives learned a large
prescription for the potentially addictive painkiller had been called in to
a Plantation drug store for Radius.

Records also state that Radius had a female friend call in the
prescriptions on his behalf. She would tell the pharmacy she worked for a
local doctor's office. Radius received 285 Vicodin pills over a three-month
period, police said.

Investigators interviewed the doctor whose name appeared on the
prescriptions, but the physician denied Radius had ever been a patient,
police said.

Radius, who was hired by the department two years ago, could not be reached
for comment.

Michael Hanlon, president of the city's police union, said the union's
legal committee would likely meet with Radius to discuss the case. Radius
has been suspended without pay.