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Sarasota Jail Nurse Charged With Taking Inmate's Pills

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Todd Ruger / Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: November 13, 2007

SARASOTA COUNTY - A jail nurse has been hit with a felony drug charge for replacing an inmate's oxycodone pills with Tylenol and taking the prescription drug home, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said.

The arrest comes less than two months after Armor Correctional Medical Services, the nurse's employer, started its contract to provide health care to Sarasota County inmates.

Inmate Cedrick L. Mitchell noticed Saturday that the pill administered to him was marked differently from the oxycodone he had been taking for three days, and he questioned it because he has drug allergies, according to a sheriff's report.

Nurses discovered that Mitchell's prescription bottle contained 13 acetaminophen pills, and nurse Heather L. Rowland, 29, was the last to handle it, the report states.

Rowland told a detective that she had back pain and needed the medication. She had taken 10 to 15 oxycodone pills and turned over the seven she had left, the report states.

The detective arrested her early Sunday morning on a charge of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. She was released on bail later that day.

Mitchell, 35, was found guilty this year as an accessory to robbery, court records show, and is in jail on a violation of probation charge.

The sheriff's report does not specify why he needed the oxycodone, an addictive opiate usually prescribed for postoperative pain or chronic pain.

An Armor representative could not be reached for comment Monday.

Armor began providing jail medical services on Oct. 1 after Sheriff Bill Balkwill selected the company to take over a $3 million contract.

The company that lost the contract, Prison Health Systems, has sued the sheriff's office, alleging that Balkwill violated county policy by awarding the contract without competitive bids.

The sheriff did solicit bids in May, but he rejected them all because the lowest was nearly $3.2 million for the first year.

The sheriff then negotiated the contract with Armor without conducting another round of bids.

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