CHICORA — A Bruin woman faces trial in an alleged prescription drug fraud scheme in which she posed as her doctor to obtain painkillers.

Tracy Deal-Miller, 43, on Tuesday waived her preliminary hearing in the case at the office of District Judge Lewis Stoughton in Chicora. She is charged with 18 criminal counts, nine of them felonies.

Saxonburg police began their investigation after Saxonburg Medical Center on Dec. 19 reported the defendant, a patient, had been “calling in prescriptions for herself to Butler County pharmacies.”

Police suspect Deal-Miller had Vicodin prescriptions filled at least nine times by calling pharmacies and claiming to be her physician, who has an office at the Saxonburg Medical Center.

Investigators later obtained search warrants for those pharmacies, located in Butler Township, Butler and Saxonburg.

At one of those stores, documents said, the defendant is seen on surveillance video picking up a fraudulent prescription.

Police on Feb. 7 charged Deal-Miller with nine counts each of fraudulent acquisition of a controlled substance, a felony, and identity theft, a misdemeanor.

She is being held in the Butler County Prison on $1,000 bail, and for a probation violation. Her formal arraignment in Butler County Court is April 8.

Deal-Miller’s attorney, Gregory W. Swank of Kittanning, could not be reached for comment.