Former Head Nurse Of Senior Living Center Charged With Theft Of Pain Pills
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The former director of nursing at Majestic Pines Senior Living in Grand Rapids is accused of stealing pain pills from the facility.
Kimberly Ann Korpi, 46, is charged with seven counts of felony theft of a controlled substance and one gross misdemeanor count of mistreatment of a patient, court documents filed in Itasca County show. If convicted, she faces a maximum possible sentence of over 70 years in prison.
According to a criminal complaint, Korpi took pills from the medication supplies of patients and stashed them in an overflow cabinet inside of her office that only she had access to. Investigators say this went on between October 2017 and July 2018, adding that in two instances when the pills stopped disappearing Korpi was on vacation.
During an investigation, law enforcement also became aware of issues with missing narcotic pills at Korpi's former place of employment, River Grand Senior Living in Grand Rapids. In one instance, 60 Oxycodone pills went missing there. It was documented that Korpi was "then somehow able to email a nurse practitioner and obtain an additional 60 Oxycodone pills to replace the pills that had gone missing."
Patients at the Majestic Pines facility paid for their medications out of their own pocket. They were ultimately forced to pay for medications that they did not need or use. The criminal complaint adds that Majestic Pines patients were in physical pain, and going through withdrawals, because of the shortage of narcotic medication during the time Korpi was the director of nursing.
Korpi is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 6.
