Former caregiver waives hearing
Thursday, April 30, 2009
By Liza Matia Staff Writer
A woman accused of neglecting to care for a patient waived her right to a preliminary hearing yesterday at centralized court. Jill Butler, 28, of Clearfield faces charges of neglect of a care-dependent person and tampering with records of identification. According to the affidavit of probable cause, Ms. Butler was working at the Mountain Laurel Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in January when a patient complained that she had not changed his duragesic patch. The patch was initialed by Ms. Butler, but the patient insisted that it had not been changed.
After checking the records, it was determined that a new patch had been signed out, but it had not been administered to the patient. As a result, the victim suffered "severe pain and bodily injury" from not receiving his medication.
Ms. Butler spoke with police in February and denied stealing the patches and admitted that she "must have made a mistake." After several rounds of questioning by officers, Ms. Butler told police that she "must have put the old patch back on the patient and threw away the new patch."
She is currently free on unsecured bail.
