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Ohio State Board Of Pharmacy

Rite Aid: unfair treatment by Rx board

CLEVELAND -- Rite Aid felt it was unfairly treated by the Ohio State Pharmacy Board at the time president Martin Grass sought the resignation of one of its members, papers filed in U.S. Circuit Court here by state prosecutors show.

Transcripts of five tape-recorded conversations between Grass and board member Melvin Wilczynski also show that Grass requested Wilczynski's board resignation in return for compensation on a consultant's contract Rite Aid picked up when it acquired Lane Drug stores from Peoples.

The state has charged that a $33,000 contract buyout, plus health benefits for Wilczynski's mother, paid by Rite Aid April 27, was a "bribe" for Wilczynski's board resignation.

Grass and Rite Aid were indicted by a grand jury on the bribery charges June 14.

A Dec. 15 hearing has been set to consider Rite Aid motions to dismiss the prosecutor and dismiss the case.

"We have been treated unfairly. The board is going to change, and it's going to change tremendously," Grass told Wilczynski in a face-to-face March 29 meeting in which Grass demanded his board resignation, prosecutors charge.

The two subsequently had at least five telephone conversations (that were taped by enforcement officers) in which they arranged for the contract payment and Wilcznyski's resignation, according to papers filed here.

Rite Aid has argued it has been victimized by board enforcement policies due to a long-standing board vendetta against it. In a pending civil suit against the former Lane Drug pharmacist, the defendants charge that Wilczynski on at least two occassions after the Lane purchase made derogatory remarks against Rite Aid. He subsequently asked Grass if he should resign from the board, Rite Aid said.

Rite Aid has said in court papers it offered him several options, including that he could continue employed as a consultant and remain a member of the board until his term "either expired or was not renewed."

In response to the publication of parts of the taped conversations in the national press late last month, Rite Aid issued a statement saying it will respond in the courtroom Dec. 15.

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