ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — A Rowan County pain pill plot thickens as another doctor faces a criminal charge.
Dr. Cheryl Navarro-McGuinness walked silently into the Rowan County Magistrate's Office with her attorney by her side to turn herself in on a felony charge Wednesday.
She's the second doctor accused in pain pill plot that involved 25,000 powerful pills.
READ: Pill-swapping indictments
The State Bureau of Investigation says from 2011 to early 2014, Navarro-McGuinness wrote hydrodone and oxycodone prescriptions to Dr. Orrin Walker who was not her patient.
"She is a person who just wanted to help people and practice medicine," said defense attorney John Landreth.
Channel 9 questioned Walker in July when he, his wife, Abby, several teachers and staff from three schools surrendered to criminal charges.
PAST COVERAGE: Doctor accused in drug scheme taken to jail, bond set at $150K
Police said Walker wrote 200 fake hydrocodone prescriptions in their names then he and his wife took the meds to feed their own addictions.
The investigation into Walker's alleged drug use lead police to Navarro-McGuinness.
Channel 9 learned the North Carolina Medical Board reprimanded Navarro-McGuinness in August, fining her $1,000, but she can still prescribe pain medications.
"She is still practicing and we believe once this is over she will be back to practicing medicine and helping people again," said Landreth.
The grand jury indicted another woman in the case, Wendy Hamrick.
Investigators said she was a friend of Dr. Walker's wife and that she wrote bogus prescriptions at a Kannapolis pharmacy.
Hamrick is expected to turn herself in Thursday.
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