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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Lakewood Nurse Charged with Felonies

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    A nurse from Lakewood has been charged with multiple felonies. Forty-three-year-old, Michelle Brown, is accused of stealing liquid medicine from Crestmont North Nursing Home. Brown took morphine and hydromorphone from the nursing home and refilled the bottles with water. She left behind the diluted medicine, which was to be used by the patients of Crestmont North Nursing Home.

    Investigators reported none of the patients were hurt or complained about their medication. It could not be determined how much of the medicine Brown stole,or how diluted the bottles of medication she left behind were. She had taken the bottles off of a medication cart, where she poured some of the liquid into pill baggies. Brown proceeded to put water into the bottles to bring it back up to the original level.

    Brown was caught when employees of the nursing home noticed Brown acting suspicious. They decided to review the facility’s security footage where Brown is seen ducking into closets, empty rooms and rooms of patients. The staff confronted Brown who admitted to stealing medication on two occasions. She reportedly took the medications home and used it herself.

    Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Michael O’Malley, released an emailed statement through a spokesperson. In this email O’Malley writes, “This defendant took advantage of her position as a nurse to illicitly obtain drugs and tried to conceal the evidence. In doing so, she placed the innocent patients at risk by tampering with their medication. We will seek an appropriate punishment.”

    On Friday, May 3rd, a grand jury handed up an indictment. The indictment charges Brown with tampering with drugs, theft, drug possession and illegal processing of drug documents. Brown’s arraignment is set for May 17th.

    Lakewood High School student, Esmeralda Xhyliu, was very shocked to hear of this story. She says, “My grandpa is in a nursing home and the thought of some nurse potentially tampering with his medication is sickening. I hope the nurse gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

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