This post was originally published on this site
A former nurse has been placed on probation for multiple crimes, including stealing narcotics from a Barre nursing home.
Sherise L. Simpson, 36, pleaded guilty Thursday in Washington County criminal court to a felony count of prescription fraud and misdemeanor counts of petty larceny, operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent and passing a bad check and two misdemeanor counts of false pretenses. Simpson agreed to a sentence of 3 to 18 months, all suspended. She was given a 2-year deferred sentence on the felony conviction and placed on probation for two years.
The state agreed to dismiss multiple other counts Simpson had been facing, including seven more felony counts of prescription fraud. An eighth count was amended to petty larceny, per the plea agreement. The operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent charge had been a felony, but the state amended it to a misdemeanor. The state also dismissed a second felony count of operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent.
Deputy State’s Attorney Alfonso Villegas said the state came to this agreement with Simpson because there is a strong incentive for her to be successful on probation. If she successfully completes probation, the felony charge can be removed from her record. If she violates her probation conditions, the conviction could stay on her record permanently and she could be sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Simpson said she took full accountability for her actions. Her attorney, Avi Springer, reported Simpson now lives in New Hampshire. He said she works at a supermarket and recently received a promotion.
Springer said his client is engaging in substance use and mental health treatment. He said she’s worked hard during the past few years to “put things back together.”
For the prescription fraud and petty larceny convictions, Detective John C. Lewis, an investigator with the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, said in his affidavit in March 2018 he received a report from Barre Gardens nursing home stating Simpson, a traveling nurse who had been working at the nursing home, may have been taking the narcotics oxycodone and hydrocodone from nine patients. Simpson had started working there on Feb. 12, 2018, and was suspended on Feb. 28, 2018, according to the affidavit.
Lewis said he met with a nurse at Barre Gardens who told him concerns about Simpson were raised when a colleague reported there was documentation from Simpson stating a resident had been receiving oxycodone when the last time the resident had been prescribed the drug was in June 2017. The nurse told Lewis she reviewed documentation on several other residents and discovered a total of nine who had reportedly been receiving narcotics without a prescription.
Lewis said he reviewed the residents’ medical records and saw Simpson had withdrawn oxycodone for one resident on five occasions even though the resident’s prescription for the drug had been discontinued. He said in other instances he found that Simpson would withdraw two pills before administering only one to the resident, or she would withdraw the drug and not document administering it at all.
For the operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent conviction, police said Simpson rented two Toyota Tacomas from 802 Toyota in Berlin in July 2018 and never returned them. The trucks were later found in St. Johnsbury and Gorham, New Hampshire.
Simpson is the former partner of Everett A. Simpson who faces his own charges in a separate incident. Everett Simpson is accused of leaving a treatment facility in Bradford, kidnapping a woman and her child at random and sexually assaulting the woman in January 2019. The federal charges against him are pending. He is being held at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.
The pair had rented the Tacomas together.
Sherise Simpson said in court Thursday her relationship with her former partner was abusive, but that was no excuse for her behavior.