Crime Q&A: What happened to Rancho Cordova police officer arrested on drug charges?

Q: What ever happened to the Rancho Cordova police officer arrested on drug charges? The officer’s name is Kelly Smith and she was arrested in the spring of 2012 for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or deceit, and unlawful use of personal identifying information of another.

A: Former Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Kelly Smith pleaded no contest to a felony charge of willfully obtaining another person’s identifying information and using it for unlawful purposes.

She was sentenced to 120 days in a sheriff’s work project and ordered to complete a drug diversion program, according to Sacramento Superior Court records available online. She also was placed on five years probation.

Smith, a 23-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, had been assigned to the Rancho Cordova Police Department as part of the city’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department to provide public-safety services. She resigned from the agency following her arrest, according to a sheriff’s spokesman.

She was accused of refilling an elderly man’s hydrocodone prescriptions without his knowledge or consent, and then keeping the pills for her own use, according to stories in The Sacramento Bee.

Prosecutors alleged that she had befriended the 90-year-old man to get access to his prescriptions. A member of the man’s family became aware of the activity and alerted authorities.

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 8:42 PM with the headline "Crime Q&A: What happened to Rancho Cordova police officer arrested on drug charges?."