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Crime & Safety

Sussex Woman Allegedly Uses Special Needs Sister to Get Drugs

Suspect tells police her mom encouraged her to use her sister to get pain killers, then split the pills with her.

A 22-year-old Sussex woman is facing charges after she allegedly used her developmentally disabled sister to try and obtain prescription painkillers she would then split with her mom.

Raideen M. Kaufman was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court Wednesday with two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and one count of obtaining a prescription drug by fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 12 ½ years in prison and $20,500 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint:

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In January, a Waukesha County social worker who works with Kaufman’s 34-year-old developmentally disabled sister contacted police after she received a call from a nurse at Elmbrook Hospital that Kaufman and her sister had come in trying to get pain medication. Kaufman told the nurse her sister had tooth pains, but the nurse checked medical records and found the couple had gone to various clinics and hospitals in past months trying to get medication. The two left before seeing a doctor and the nurse became even more concerned after finding out the disabled woman had been prescribed Hydrocodone and Oxycodone on different occasions between March 2011 and December.

On Aug. 21, Kaufman told investigators she had been woken up by her mom in the middle of the night and told her sister had tooth pain and needed to be taken to the hospital. On the first occasion this happened, Kaufman said they pulled her sister’s tooth and the doctor said she was fine and only needed Ibuprofen.   

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Kaufman then spoke to her mom on the phone who insisted the disabled woman was in pain and needed medication.

On Sept 3, Kaufman gave investigators a bill that was sent to her home for medical care another sister supposedly  had in June where she went to the Sussex Family Clinic on two different occasions for joint pain and was prescribed Vicodin. Investigators were contacted again a week later after workers discovered someone claiming to be Kaufman’s sister came in on three occasions in June to fill prescriptions for Hydrocodone and Tramadol.

Kaufman was interviewed again Tuesday and said when her mom first called her in the middle of the night about the tooth pains she realized it was not right and was probably a scam, but she went along with it. She then said her mother insisted she pose as her sister and go to the clinic to get more painkillers in June.

She said she would get the pills and split them with her mother.

She’s currently being held in Waukesha County Jail on $500 bond and a $5,000 signature bond while awaiting trial. 

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