A Tallulah physician and his live-in Vicksburg girlfriend, both accused of obtaining nearly 14,000 pills and tablets through fraudulent prescription drug activity, were free Friday evening after each posting $100,000 bond.

Dr. Lawrence F. Chenier, 58, and Pattie Carr, 41, both of 100 Colonial Drive in Vicksburg, had appeared Friday morning before Justice Court Judge James Jefferson.

The two were arrested in separate locations about 9 a.m. Thursday in raids coordinated by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Chenier was nabbed at his Tallulah office at 900 Johnson St. with assistance from the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Department, while Carr was served with arrest and search warrants by deputies and DEA agents at the couple’s home.

Each is charged with 300 counts of controlled substance fraud in acquisition and one count of conspiracy to commit controlled substance fraud in acquisition, said Warren County investigator Chris Satcher.

In court Friday morning, Jefferson read affidavits specifying the 22 different false names Chenier is accused of using when he wrote the prescriptions. Carr is believed to have taken the scripts to pharmacies to be filled, said Satcher.

Nearly 400 empty prescription vials were recovered at the Colonial Drive home, Satcher said. He declined to say how many different pharmacies the couple had used for their purchases, but said the majority were in the Vicksburg area, with some from Tallulah, Jackson and possibly other locations.

The vials, matched with prescriptions recovered from the pharmacies, showed that the haul included about 6,000 Lorcet and 8,000 Lyrica tablets.

Satcher said about 80 Xanax pills also had been prescribed, and a small quantity had been recovered.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said at a press conference Friday that Chenier and Carr had spent about $24,000 on the drugs. He declined to comment on the couple’s intent, whether for personal use or sale, and was not sure what the street value of the medications might be.

Online records show Chenier is an emergency and family practice physician licensed in Louisiana. He maintains an office at 1000 Johnson St., in Tallulah, and also works in the emergency room of the Madison Parish Hospital at 900 Johnson St. He received his medical degree in 1980 at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and has been in practice since 1982, records show.

Carr is not employed, Satcher said.

Lorcet, a Schedule II narcotic, is a combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen, and users can become dependent on the drug. Lyrica is a Schedule V drug not considered habit forming, and is used to control epileptic seizures as well as for pain relief and generalized anxiety disorder. Xanax, a Schedule IV drug with a relatively low rate of addiction, is an anti-depressive also used as a muscle relaxant.