FRANKLIN—A Newsoms man yet to sentenced for his part in a 2013 marijuana growing operation is in trouble again, this time on a charge of obtaining drugs by fraud.

Joel Hedgepeth, 28, of the 34000 block of Monroe Road, was arrested Monday at 8:15 p.m., in the Farm Fresh grocery store on Armory Drive, according to Capt. Tim Whitt, spokesman for the Franklin Police Department.

“The accused Joel Hedgepeth presented a suspicious prescription to the pharmacist at Walgreens for Oxycodone,” said Whitt. “The pharmacist notified police, and upon investigation it was determined that the prescription was forged. Hedgepeth was arrested at Farm Fresh while trying to pick up another prescription. He was charged and remanded to Western Tidewater Regional Jail without bond.”

The arraignment is scheduled for 9 a.m. today, Jan. 5, in General District Court, Franklin.

Richard Railey, serving as the attorney for Hedgepeth, said he could not comment on the incident at this time.

Hedgepeth is also scheduled for a pre-sentence report at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 25, in Southampton County Circuit Court. That’s related to his admitted part in the aforementioned growing.

In mid-July, he and Kyle Thorpe were arrested on multiple charges connected to the operation that law enforcement busted in late May. There were 99 plants seized, and an illegal liquor still was also taken then.

Hedgepeth pleaded guilty at his trial in September to four counts of selling and distributing marijuana and a drug sale on or near school property or a library.