Barring any last minute delays, the prescription forgery trial of a Tallulah physician accused of feeding his live-in girlfriend’s drug habit will begin this week.

Jury selected was set to begin today in the trial of Dr. Lawrence Francis Chenier III, 61, who lives in Vicksburg but practices medicine in Tallulah.

Circuit Judge M. James Chaney is presiding over the trial.

Chenier had been set to go to trial Sept. 15, but checked himself into a Jackson hospital the weekend before complaining of chest pains. The case previously had been delayed two other times.

Marshall Sanders of Vicksburg and Lisa Ross of Jackson represent him.

Trial, if it begins today, is expected to last all week, District Attorney Ricky Smith said.

Chenier is accused writing prescriptions for painkillers that his live-in girlfriend, Pattie Carr, picked up at a local drug store.

Carr has said many of the prescriptions were written to fictitious names.

More than 300 empty bill bottles were found inside the home she and Chenier share at 100 Colonial Drive when narcotics agents raided the home in September 2011.

Between October 2010 and September 2011, Carr used 22 different names to pick up nearly 7,500 tablets of hydrocodone and 10,000 tablets of Lyrica from a pharmacy near their home, according to court records. The drugs cost about $30,000.

None of the names were people who had sought legitimate prescriptions from Chenier, Carr has said.

Defense attorneys are expected to raise concerns about why the pharmacy allowed Carr to pick up so many of the pain pills.

Carr, who is represented by John Bullard, pleaded guilty July 24 to five counts of prescription forgery. She faces up to 25 years in prison, but Bullard made a strong case before Chaney to sentence her to the Ninth Circuit Drug Court program. Carr contended that Chenier was unaware of her drug habit.

During testimony in a sentencing hearing, however, Carr admitted she is still living with Chenier.