Josh Barta
jbarta@uwyo.edu
A former Albany county nurse pled guilty to charges of medication theft at a local assisted living and care home.
Andra Lee Cousins, 46, a former nurse at Spring Winds Assisted Living and Memory Care, pled no contest to three counts of misdemeanor theft.
Judge Wade E. Waldrip moved to drop the felony charges against Cousins of one count of abuse, neglect, abandonment, intimidation or exploitation of a vulnerable adult and one count of attempting to possess a controlled substance.
Cousins was ordered to spend 18 months on supervised probation with an underlying sentence of 180 days in jail. Cousins will pay a total of $1067.12 in fines and court costs, including $197.12 in restitution.
According to the affidavit, police responded to reports of medication theft when it was discovered the labels of Tramadol bottles were reapplied to other medication bottles, such as Tylenol and vitamin D.
Police say up to 150 Tramadol tablets were reported missing and that patients were given other medication instead.
Police said Cousins admitted to often resealing medication packages and that she was prescribed Tramadol.
According to reports, one patient did not receive her dose “about 10 times” in the medications prescribed eight-day period and was given Lasix instead. The patient later fell on Feb. 8 on her way to the bathroom.
The daughter of the patient made a comment Wednesday before the defendant was sentenced.
“Andra, I thought you were my friend,” she said.
Cousins has since agreed to surrender her nursing license.
