Nurse Charged with Interference with Medical Services & Exploitation of an Endangered Adult

This is a press release issued by the Indiana Attorney General's office:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 28, 2007

Nurse Arrested and Charged in New Albany following Investigation by the Indiana Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit

(INDIANAPOLIS, IN) – A Louisville, Kentucky woman working in Indiana has been arrested and charged for coercing one of her patients to save her prescribed medications for the nurse’s personal use.  Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) Kathy Stinson has been charged in Floyd Superior Court with one count of Interference with Medical Services and one count of Exploitation of an Endangered Adult.

“A patient suffered needlessly because of the greed of this nurse who was in a position of power,” Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said.  “We appreciate the assistance of local law enforcement in working with the state’s investigators to arrest and file charges against this individual.”

Stinson was arrested Monday, November 26, 2007 in Indiana.  She is alleged to have asked a patient not to take her prescribed medications and to save them for her.  The patient complied and over several weeks stashed her medication away for Stinson, even though she was suffering considerable pain without the medicine.  Stinson would visit the room and take the medication that had been hoarded.

Stinson is being held on $50,000 bond.  The case is in the Floyd Superior Court in Indiana; cause number 22D01-0711-FC-772.

See  http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/press/Release.StinsonLPN.html.

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In the American criminal justice system, you are innocent until proven guilty. This nurse will not only have to defend herself in the criminal case; she may be facing disciplinary investigations before the Kentucky and Indiana Boards of Nursing if she is licensed to practice nursing in both states.

Sometimes in criminal cases, if the prosecutor knows the defendant is a licensed nurse, the prosecutor may forward the criminal complaint to the State Board of Nursing, which initiates a state board of nursing disciplinary investigation.