San Diego

A San Diego police officer who forged prescriptions for painkillers, originally obtained to relieve pain from a 1981 shooting, was ordered Friday to perform 40 hours of volunteer work at Palomar Hospital.

Robert Kobs Jr., 32, was fined $100 and placed on three years’ probation.

Kobs was shot six times in May, 1981, by Christopher Ortiz after Ortiz wrestled his gun away from him. Kobs was saved by his bulletproof vest, but also was shot in the legs and in the abdomen just under the vest.

Ortiz was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced in 1981 to 12 years in state prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan Preckel said Kobs, who is not now on active duty, is applying for a disability retirement.

Preckel said Kobs developed a dependency on the type of Tylenol that contains codeine. He said Kobs had a prescription for another drug and whited it out on the doctor’s prescription form. He substituted the painkiller and made duplicate copies of it.

Kobs pleaded guilty Sept. 4 to two counts of forging prescriptions and the charges were reduced to misdemeanors. Fifteen additional felony counts of forging prescriptions were dismissed in a plea-bargain agreement.

San Diego Municipal Judge Robert McDonald said the forgeries were “an inappropriate reaction to his illness.”

McDonald ordered Kobs not to use controlled substances without a prescription and to perform the volunteer work by the end of the year.