Robberies may be linked

A man charged with the burglary of thousands of dollars of prescription drugs in Lake Forest after being arrested on warrant outside of a Huntington Beach pharmacy pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his arraignment in Newport Beach.

Police suspect Brian Dow Fleming, 38, may have been casing the Walgreens at 19001 Brookhurst St. April 5 when a multi-agency task force arrested him following a tip from the public, said Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

He was processed in Huntington Beach and taken to Orange County Jail in Santa Ana.

Fleming is “certainly not connected” to robberies of the drug OxyContin reported in the last few months in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, Amormino said.

Authorities are, however, investigating possible links between Fleming and one or more recent pharmaceutical burglaries in San Clemente, he added.

Fleming was arrested on warrant on suspicion of a February burglary of the Foothill Ranch Medical Plaza, Amormino said. An estimated $10,000 in drugs, including methadone and morphine derivative OxyContin, were stolen then.

“And that’s just the wholesale value,” Amormino said. “These [OxyContin] pills go for up to $80 a piece on the street.”

Fleming’s next court date in this case is a pre-trial conference April 18. He is also facing a separate drug possession charge; for that case he is scheduled to appear in court April 13.