WILKES-BARRE – A certified nursing assistant at the Garden Estates Personal Care Home was arrested Friday for allegedly replacing patients’ Vicodin prescriptions with extra strength Tylenol.
Attorney General Tom Corbett identified the defendant as Leniea Burgina, 29, of 311 Barney St., Wilkes-Barre.
According to the criminal complaint, agents from the Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigations assisted the Department of Health with an inspection of the Garden Estates Personal Care Home on March 12 after the Health office received a confidential complaint regarding the defendant’s alleged activities.
Corbett said the investigation revealed that Burgina had signed a majority of the narcotics sheets, in which Vicodin had been prescribed for patients. In addition, four bubble packs of Hydrocodone, a generic form of Vicodin, had been tampered with.
The criminal complaint states that for approximately one year, the defendant had not provided the prescribed medication of Vicodin to three of the care home’s patients. Instead, she had allegedly given them extra-strength Tylenol and kept the Vicodin for herself.
“Prescription drug abuse is a problem that does not carry the same social stigma as illegal narcotics,” Corbett said. “Unfortunately, in this case, the abuse could have caused grave harm to three unsuspecting patients who trusted a health care provider to care for and protect their well-being.”
Burgina is charged with one felony count acquisition of a controlled substance by misrepresentation, one misdemeanor count possession of a controlled substance, and one misdemeanor count theft by unlawful taking.
Burgina was arraigned Friday before Magisterial District Judge David Barilla and released on $3,000 unsecured bail.
Corbett thanked the Department of Health and the Garden Estates Personal Care Home for their cooperation with the investigation.
The case will be prosecuted by Luzerne County District Attorney Dave Lupas’ office.