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Crime brief

Police catch man suspected of forging prescription

A Sunnyvale man fled Mountain View police after pharmacists at a local drugstore reported that he was attempting to collect what they suspected was a forged prescription for painkillers, police said.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on Nov. 2, Maurice Perkins allegedly attempted to obtain 180 tablets of the drug oxycodone at the Walgreens at Grant Road and El Camino Real, according to Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie.

The pharmacist called the police to tell them she had reason to believe the prescription was forged, since she knew the doctor's office listed was no longer in business, Wylie said.

Perkins was just leaving the store when police arrived, she said. When officers attempted to detain him, he fled across Grant Road, hopped two walls and darted into rush hour traffic on El Camino Real.

In the middle of the road Perkins spotted another officer waiting for him on the opposite side of El Camino and stopped running, Wylie said. Officers tackled Perkins in the first lane of eastbound El Camino, which had been blocked by another officer's cruiser. No weapons were used in the arrest.

Police found marijuana on Perkins, which "he did not have a prescription for," Wylie said.

Perkins complained of knee pain and a cut on his arm, but declined transport from medical officials who inspected his injuries, she said. An arresting officer suffered a scuffed knee but also declined medical treatment.

Perkins has been charged with resisting arrest, burglary, generation and use of a forged prescription and possession of marijuana, according to Wylie.

—Nick Veronin