James City County, Va. - A Yorktown woman has been charged with stealing drugs from the hospital where she worked as a nurse.
Megan Howell, née Weis, was arrested on January 26. She is accused of stealing drugs from the Pavilion at Williamsburg Place. The incidents that led up to this arrest occurred between December 5, 2015 and December 22, 2015.
She was charged with nine counts of possession of a scheduled two drug, one count of grand larceny and 8 counts of petty larceny.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Pavilion at Williamsburg Place says, "Because our passion and mission is in behavioral health and addiction treatment, we will always believe in the power of second chances. Unfortunately, in this circumstance, we gave a second chance to an individual who appears to have broken our trust. Patient safety is our biggest concern and therefore we have a monitoring system in place. We were assured that no patients had medication withheld or were harmed in any way. We immediately took all of the appropriate steps and now it is up to the legal system to take the next steps. We will continue to make our patients our top priority and to provide a safe and healing environment."
Howell was previously arrested on January 15 and charged on a direct indictment for 15 counts of prescription fraud. The incidents that led up to that arrest occurred between November 19, 2013 and December 1, 2013.
An attorney with the Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney's Office says Howell is currently under advisement without finding.
He says this usually means the person is a first time offender, so the judge has agreed to hold off on his or her case for a year. If the person follows the terms of the agreement, the judge can either dismiss the charge or make it a misdemeanor.
The attorney could not comment on Howell's case directly, but he did say if she is convicted for the charges in James City County that it would affect her prior charges in Newport News.
