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An East Stroudsburg School District security officer has been arrested for allegedly stealing a student’s medication from a locked medicine cabinet in the East Stroudsburg High School South nurse’s office, according to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.
Karen Palaia, 56, of Bangor, is facing charges of theft and possession of a controlled substance, according to the DA’s Office, following a month-long investigation conducted by Monroe County District Attorney detectives.
According to a criminal complaint, a parent contacted officials about the theft of his daughter’s medication, 12 5mg Adderall pills on Jan. 20. Police were able to confirm the amount of missing pills from an inventory kept by the nursing staff. The pills went missing between Dec. 9, 2015 and 12:20 p.m. on Dec. 10 2015. Only the nursing staff had copies of the keys, according to a police report.
The school’s head nurse told police that Palaia asked her to store a bottle of potassium tablets in the medicine cabinet on Nov. 20, 2015. Palaia told the head nurse she wouldn’t be able to access the pills after the nursing staff left at 3 p.m.
Surveillance video showed Palaia got into the locked medicine cabinet during the evening of Dec. 9, 2015. She was the only person seen going to the cabinet, according to police.
After being read her Miranda rights on Feb. 28, Palaia allegedly admitted that she went into the nurse’s office and opened the medicine cabinet but only took her own prescribed potassium pills. She also told police she found a key to the cabinet in a drawer in the main office and was never given keys to the cabinet.
Palaia faces 12 counts of intentional possession of a controlled substance and one count of theft by unlawful taking. Magisterial District Justice Michael Muth scheduled a preliminary hearing for Palaia at 10 a.m. March 29.