AUBURN – A former Rite Aid pharmacist pleaded innocent Friday to charges that he peddled painkillers from the drugstore to people without prescriptions.

Robert Holcomb Jr., 25, of 50 Timberlake Road, Sabattus, faces two counts of unlawful furnishing of drugs and two counts of stealing drugs for allegedly taking Vicodin from Rite Aid on Union Street in Auburn and giving it away to customers.

Each charge carries of maximum of five years in prison.

Holcomb made a brief appearance in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Friday to enter his plea on the felony charges.

Based on his lack of a criminal record and the fact that he isn’t considered at risk of fleeing, he was allowed to remain free without bail until his next court appearance.

When Holcomb was arrested by drug agents in late March, he said he doled out the painkiller because he felt bad for people who are addicted, an investigator said.

Police say Holcomb was illegally dispensing 5- to 7-milligram dosages of Vicodin from the Auburn pharmacy. Drug agents began investigating him after one of those customers was taken to the hospital from an overdose.

Agents from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and other departments worked on the case for roughly a week before the Rite Aid was raided.

According to court documents, undercover agents observed Holcomb as he handed vials of Vicodin to a confidential informant who had no prescription.

Police and drug agents approached Holcomb at the pharmacy counter in the early evening on March 31. He was questioned for about a half-hour before he was led out of the store in handcuffs.

Inspectors from the state’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation examined the inventory of medication at the Rite Aid following the raid. Investigators said thousands of pills, including Vicodin and other painkillers, were missing from the stock.

The charges against Holcomb stem from the alleged transactions on the evening of his arrest.