Dear rockyyy-ga;
It is certainly difficult, and occasionally impossible, for some
people to avoid being a scapegoat in a situation where someone else is
at fault, especially when the circumstances are contrived in the
manner you implied. Assuming your friend is innocent as you say and
there is noting more than circumstantial evidence against her, it
would seem that the best approach is to focus on issues that provide
the best defense. I will use the terms ?you? and ?your? here to refer
to your friend:
Maintain your innocence. Never admit to wrongdoing IF you are not at fault.
Take a privately administered lie detector test and offer to freely
disclose the results.
Take a privately administered drug screen and offer to freely disclose
the results.
Find and point out inconsistencies in discipline: Similar incidents
met with varying degrees of disciplinary action, similar incidents
handled differently over time, etc.
Find and point out inconsistencies in policy: Day shift does something
different than night shift, certain key control and inventory issues
differ from shift to shift or person to person, certain supervisors
are stricter than others, etc.
Find and point out inconsistencies in training: Some nurses are taught
to do one thing while others are taught something else, certain
procedures used to be one way but now it has changed and not everyone
was notified or trained properly (or at all), etc.
Find and point out efficiency problems: Are keys controlled properly?
Can they be copied? Are inventory sheets secured, or does everyone
have access to them? How are partially used vials disposed of and
where are the records to those destructions kept and by whom? Are
patients being charged for drugs they are not receiving? Were any
patients during this time frame charged for full doses of drugs that
they did not receive all doses of? Were two-person access or two
person signature access policies being used and if so were they used
properly and at all times by everyone?
Find and point out legal responsibilities and liability issues: Were
supervisors aware of problems that could have potentially led to
missing inventory and did nothing to prevent it? Did supervisors
already suspect someone unknown was pilfering drugs and failed to act,
thus putting an innocent nurse at potential risk for accusation? Were
the drugs AT ALL TIMES being stored and inventoried in accordance with
DEA rules and regulations? Were expired drugs and medications where
the seals were broken being disposed of properly?
Research the history of the inventory: Who saw the drugs last? Who
inventoried last? Who else had access? Who was present and when? Were
the forms ever altered and were the alterations initialed properly?
Make a list of those who were in a position to bring these charges
that were also in a position to be disciplined due to your earlier
complaints. Make some notes as to how each person might have been
offended or threatened by your actions and how her or she could easily
have contrived this ?crime? and made these accusations against you.
Hire a good lawyer. With the answers to the questions above, a good
lawyer should be able to recognize their defense value and consider
them as potential tools in any proceedings against you.
These are the types of things I would focus on if it were me. Once
they focus on you as a suspect and you know for a fact that you are
innocent, it would only seem logical that you should immediately begin
to focus on them as suspicious for having done so.
These are merely my opinions of course and do not serve as legal
advice in any way, but they all certainly seem like reasonable
approaches to me.
I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCE
20+ years professional law enforcement and investigative experience |
