By Staff
CASSOPOLIS - The traffic stop was on Hospital Street.
The driver was a graduate school nurse.
Her place of employment was a nursing home.
And in her purse were drugs prescribed to geriatric patients.
It took a Cass County jury less than an hour to convict Amanda Woods, a Cassopolis native, of unlawful possession of three drugs which had been stolen from her place of employment, Dowagiac Nursing Home.
Each of the three counts carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.
The drugs, Alprazolam (Xanax), Hydrcodone (Vicodin) and Ambien had all been prescribed to residents of the nursing home.
Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz indicated that "alert police work and immediate cooperation from the nursing home officials brought this opportunist to justice."
Woods, 29, was arrested for driving on a suspended license and speeding on Sept. 18, 2004, shortly after leaving her night shift as a graduate nurse at Dowagiac Nursing Home. At the time of her arrest she had the three prescription medications in her purse. The medications belonged to two different residents of the nursing home.
Woods had access to the patients' medications at the nursing home as a result of her status as a graduate nurse.
Drug Prosecutor Judy Baxter presented the case in court for the people.
The Cass County Prosecutor's Office has a 100-percent felony drug and jury trial conviction rate in 2005.
Fitz also indicated that the conviction would have an impact on the ability of Woods to continue in the nursing profession.
The residents have since passed away due to factors unrelated to the theft and possession of their medications.
Sentencing for the defendant is scheduled for Oct. 7 at 8:30 a.m.
The jury found Woods not guilty of a related larceny in a building charge.