Former Long Island teacher Laura Parker Russo pleads guilty to lesser charges for injecting teen with COVID vaccine
MINEOLA, N.Y. -- A plea deal was made Friday in a COVID-19 vaccine case on Long Island that drew national attention.
Biology teacher Laura Parker Russo, who injected a 17-year-old friend of her son with a purported Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine last New Year's Eve, left court without comment after moving to resolve her felony case by pleading guilty to lesser charges.
"I think they should have kept it as a misdemeanor. I don't think what she did was a walk in the park," said Lisa Doyle, the teenager's mother.
Doyle reiterated what she first told CBS2 last May -- that there should be greater repercussions for the highly educated Sea Cliff mother, who was a teacher at Herricks High School.
"I'm glad that the judge realized that he needed to be tougher on her than the DA was," Doyle said.
The judge threw out the initial agreement and tacked on 100 hours of community service and therapy twice a week for a year when Russo pled guilty to attempted unauthorized practice of medicine and disorderly conduct in order to receive a conditional discharge and no prison time.
"As long as she's successful in what the judge laid out that she has to do, she will have a non-criminal disposition. She will be getting a violation at the end," Russo's defense attorney, Gerard McCloskey, said.
It was a year ago that, while at a Sea Cliff pharmacy for a shot, Russo allegedly asked for a vaccine vial to be used as a Christmas tree ornament. There was solution left in the vial.
"I think this plea allows her to move on," McCloskey said.
McCloskey added Russo was fired from her job.
Doyle says her son suffered mental anguish, embarrassment and ended up switching schools in the last semester of his senior year.
"Because of all of this, he lost a lot of his friends. He just want to be done with it and wants to jsut move on," Doyle said.
Russo, who has no criminal history and is active in her community, was made to sign a stay away order of protection from the teen.
She must serve one year probation. If she successfully performs the community service and therapy within that time, the misdemeanor will be vacated.