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Criminal cases have been a signature specialty of a criminal nurse attorney when handling cases for some nurses. However, some nurses tend to forget this fact because they really felt like they should be responsible even if they never intended to commit such an error.

In San Antonio, a 29-year old RN was arrested after authorities accused her of stealing nearly 1,700 pills. She was arrested nearly a year after her coworkers discovered a massive pill-stealing scheme, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The RN was charged with three counts of obtaining drugs through fraud and four counts of possession of controlled substances, according to jail records.

In November 2017, a staff nurse at the hospital where the RN worked as a nurse, discovered a discrepancy in their automated dispensing machines that didn’t match up with the electronic medical records, according to an arrest affidavit.

The nurse realized controlled substances had been dished out under patients’ names for prescriptions that were already filled. The medical records showed the pills didn’t make it to the patients, authorities said.

When the nurse reported the discrepancy, the facility’s management realized this had been regularly occurring on the RN’s shift, according to the affidavit.

In all, 1,658 pills were stolen. Most of them were hydrocodone, but oxycontin and codeine were also taken, the affidavit says.

This issue was filed as a complaint and sent to the Texas Board of Nursing. The Texas Board of Nursing has full jurisdiction in all cases that may affect the status of an RN or LVN’s license in the future. But they advise nurses to attend a hearing first before placing the sentence, which the RN attended for her career’s security.

When she was confronted, the RN initially claimed that she was stealing the pills for her mother, but then recanted and said she was stealing them for herself, according to the affidavit.

As a result, the Texas Board of Nursing placed her RN license to disciplinary action. It’s too bad that she failed to hire a criminal nurse attorney for assistance if she had every reason to defend herself in the first place. Her defense would have gotten better if she actually sought legal consultation from a Texas criminal nurse attorney as well.

So if you’re facing a complaint from the Board, it’s best to seek legal advice first. Texas Nurse Attorney Yong J. An is willing to assist every nurse in need of immediate help for nurse licensing cases. To contact him, please dial (832)-428-5679 for a confidential consultation or for more inquiries.