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HelioMetrics Comment:  This story about this former Director came out one day after another story about this same director made headlines.  Here is a link to the other story on our site for her theft at a more recent facility she worked at.    What is disturbing about this story is that “her employer mutually agreed to part ways, according to GCC Administrator John Freeman, and no criminal charges were filed at the time.”  So she leaves and gets a job at another facility and does the exact same thing… Stealing Drugs…

Most disturbing is the comment from the Grundy County Sheriff “It’s worse in other places,” he said. “I think we’ve had a couple reports of it, (but) I don’t know if we’ve ever proven it.”  They have had a couple reports of this happening in the county, (note: as of 2015, the population of the entire county was only 12,435).  IF you have had a couple of reports of directors stealing drugs in a county this small, you have a problem with drugs in that county.

Laura Townsend-Edler.

A Gladbrook woman who served as the Director of Nursing at the Grundy Care Center until 2015 is facing felony charges in Polk and Grundy Counties on allegations of using her position to illegally obtain opioids from her patients and falsifying paperwork to conceal the crime.

Following a lengthy investigation from the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals, Laura Townsend-Edler, age 51, has been charged with Tampering With Records (an aggravated misdemeanor), Wanton Neglect of a Resident of a Health Care Facility (an aggravated misdemeanor), and two counts of Prohibited Act—Schedule I, II or III Controlled Substance, each a Class C felony.

Grundy County Sheriff Rick Penning told The Grundy Register that the Grundy Center Police Department initiated an investigation, which was later turned over to the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals (DIA), after the care center reported the theft of narcotics on June 23, 2015. Shortly thereafter, Townsend-Edler and her employer mutually agreed to part ways, according to GCC Administrator John Freeman, and no criminal charges were filed at the time.

Penning went on to note that cases of medical administrators fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs have been extremely rare locally, even as the opioid epidemic has become something of a national crisis.

“It’s worse in other places,” he said. “I think we’ve had a couple reports of it, (but) I don’t know if we’ve ever proven it.”

Grundy Center Police Chief Doug Frost and County Attorney Erika Allen were unavailable for immediate comment, and DIA spokesman David Werning referred a request for comment to Allen’s office.

As first reported by KCCI, Townsend-Edler faces similar charges in Polk County, where she was most recently working as the DON at the Polk City Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She turned herself in to Polk County authorities on July 24, posted a $23,000 bond and was released.

Townsend-Edler’s first Grundy County court appearance is scheduled for August 14. Prior to the current charges, she had no criminal record, and an attempt to reach her listed phone number was met with a notice that it had been disconnected.