AURORA, Colo. -- The head of the emergency department at the Children's Hospital has been arrested, accused of writing more than 600 fake prescriptions for pain medication.

A federal grand jury has indicted Dr. Louis Constantine Hampers, 45, on charges of conspiracy to obtain and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and deceit.

He was indicted Aug. 26, and the indictment was sealed pending his arrest. Hampers was arrested without incident on Tuesday morning in Virginia and made his first appearance in court on Tuesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to the indictment, Hampers tried to obtain Hydrocodone (generic Vicodin), Zolpidem (generic Ambien), and Diazepam (generic Valium) by using prescriptions he had written to himself, using five different aliases and eight different patient names.

He obtained those drugs 654 times between January 2009 and April 2010, according to the indictment. In that time, he had amassed more than 20,000 tablets of Hydrocodone, prosecutors said. He also obtained Methylphenid (generic Ritalin) in one instance, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The prescription medication was obtained at multiple different pharmacies in Denver, Aurora, Littleton and Colorado Springs. In the prescriptions, Hampers used the aliases Mark Hampton, Marc O'Hara, Carl O'Hanlon, Lou Gray and Louis Gray, the indictment said.

( Read full indictment .

“Doctors who use fraudulent prescriptions to obtain large quantities of drugs are not above the law,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “There are clear criminal consequences to anyone -- including a doctor -- who uses fraud and deceit to obtain prescription medication in violation of the law."

Hampers' medical license was suspended last month and he has been on paid sick leave from the hospital since April. He joined Children's Hospital in 1999.

If convicted, Hampers faces four years in federal prison and $250,000 fine for each of the 655 counts.

Dr. Joan Bothner, Chief Medical Officer of The Children’s Hospital, released the following statement Tuesday afternoon:

"At The Children’s Hospital, our No. 1 priority is, and always will be, patient and family safety. We take these allegations involving one of our medical staff very seriously. We are saddened by the circumstances surrounding this physician. If it becomes apparent as details become more available that we can learn from this situation moving forward, we absolutely are committed to doing so.
"Dr. Hampers has not provided care in our emergency department since March 2010, and no longer has active medical staff privileges at Children’s.
"We are conducting a detailed review, and at this time have found no evidence that clinical care was compromised during his tenure. In addition, an internal review has confirmed that our systems and procedures to prevent drug diversion were effective, as there is no evidence that drugs were taken or used from the hospital. We are providing our full support to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this investigation."