La Vang, Fmr. Columbia Heights Nurse, Gets 18 Months For Stealing Patient's Medication
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Columbia Heights home health nurse was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Tuesday for allegedly stealing medication from a patient.
Documents filed in United States District Court say 26-year-old La Vang plead guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
According to a criminal complaint, suspicions were raised after blood tests from Vang's patient showed a lack of medication in her system.
She is an elderly woman in her 80's with multiple medical conditions. She'd been in Vang's care after a stay in a rehabilitative facility in April, while recovering from multiple surgeries.
Oxycodone and Hydrocodone were stolen and replaced with similar-looking tablets, like Tylenol or allergy medication. While this was happening, the victim's health declined sharply.
Vang's assignment to the victim was terminated in May, but he continued to visit her weekly, taking gifts to her and volunteering to pick up her medications.
In July, the victim's husband began to suspect that Vang was stealing the medications. He called the company that provided Vang's services, and learned that Vang was no longer employed there, even though he had been visiting the home on the pretense that he was.
The husband told him not to come to the house anymore. Vang later came to the house again when the husband was not around.
A month later, Columbia Heights police officers set up a sting operation, using pill bottles as bait.
The victim said Vang, "acted like he was distributing her pills into two, seven-day pill containers."
Later police stopped Vang's car and found Hydrocodone pills in his pocket, along with several empty OxyContin and Oxycodone bottles.
According to the criminal complaint, "Vang allegedly admitted to going to the victim's home on more than four occasions, taking 10 to 12 pills on each visit, and replacing them with Tylenol."
In another pending case in state court, Vang faces charges of theft by swindle and neglect of a vulnerable adult in connection to the same incident.