A Medical College of Georgia employee was arrested Thursday and charged with taking gift cards intended for families involved in a research study, the school announced.
Research assistant Natalie Murphy was charged with four counts of felony forgery of the first degree. She has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of those charges, the school said.
Murphy was working on a diabetes study for the Georgia Prevention Institute at MCG. She is accused of taking eight $25 gift cards meant to compensate families for home visits that are part of the study.
"She stopped doing the visits and just forged the people's name to the receipts and then used the gift cards," said Eugene Maxwell, the assistant chief of police operations for MCG Police. Murphy then moved to another job in academic affairs at MCG School of Medicine and the person who took over for her found some discrepancies, Maxwell said. The investigation is ongoing and it is possible additional charges could be filed, he said.
The school is planning to scrap data from those visits so that they do not compromise the integrity of the study.
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