01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 18, 2006

BY KATIE MULVANEY
Journal Staff Writer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- A Wakefield man received a suspended sentence and probation after admitting to stealing prescription pain medicine from a boy who underwent a heart transplant eight years ago.

David R. Reilly Jr., of 58 Steeplebush Drive, pleaded no contest last Monday in Washington County Superior Court to charges that he stole the pain medicine while visiting a friend's Cleveland Street home last summer.

Jeanette Smith began suspecting someone was stealing medicine from her son Weston when he continued to cry after taking a dose of the liquid pain killer Roxicet, Smith has said. Sometimes several ounces appeared to be missing; at other times it seemed diluted, she said.

Smith went to the police in September after the medication level went down in a bottle she marked. North Kingstown and South Kingstown police set up video surveillance in her bedroom that captured Reilly drinking from a bottle that had been hidden in a dresser drawer, police and court records show. Smith had left Reilly alone in the house after noticing him sitting near a medicine bottle at the kitchen counter.

In court records, Reilly, 44, told the police that he had a drinking problem and participated in Alcoholics Anonymous, but was not aware he was addicted to drugs. He denied diluting the medicine or taking it from the house. Reilly -- who could not be reached for comment yesterday -- and Smith had remained friends after dating in 1999.

Judge Edward C. Clifton gave Reilly to a three-year suspended sentence, with three years' probation and 100 hours of community service for drug possession. He received a one-year suspended sentence and one year of probation for each of two counts of misdemeanor larceny.

He was ordered to undergo substance abuse counseling and cannot have contact with Smith.

Now 11, Weston received a heart transplant in 1998 and takes 16 medications a day, including Roxicet. He suffers from neuropathy and other painful symptoms that are related to the transplant, according to Smith.