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MUNCIE, Ind. – A nurse at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital was arrested Wednesday on allegations she stole and ingested a narcotic pain killer while on duty.
It marked the third such arrest of a nurse employed at the Muncie hospital in 47 days.
Ruth Evelyn Williams, 52, of the 100 block of North Delaware County Road 500-E, is charged in Delaware Circuit Court 4 with possession of a narcotic drug, theft and criminal recklessness.
She was released from the Delaware County jail Wednesday morning after posting a $10,000 bond.
According to documents filed by Chief Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig, an investigation was launched April 19 after records showed Williams – assigned to the hospital’s inpatient oncology unit – had checked out an unusually high amount of hydrocodone during the month of March.
Questioned April 26 by officers with the hospital’s police department, Williams allegedly admitted she been stealing the hydrocodone from the hospital since mid-January, after her own prescription for the pain medication ran out.
She said when a patient in her unit needed pain medication, she would withdraw both hydrocodone and morphine, administer the morphine to the patient, “but keep the (hydrocodone) for herself.”
Charts would reflect the patient received both medications. Williams also admitted she also ingested the stolen drugs while working, the reports said.
On March 16, another BMH nurse, Alisha K. Sue, 28, of Albany, was arrested on similar allegations.
She pleaded guilty to two of the charges in Delaware Circuit Court 5 on April 25, and is set to be sentenced by Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. on July 13.
Last week, BMH nurse Kadee D. Klafka, 25, of Muncie, was arrested, on the same three charges faced by Sue and Williams.
An initial hearing is Klafka’s case is set for May 11 in Delaware Circuit Court 2.