NORWAY – After nurses said they caught a patient and his girlfriend trying to steal drugs from Stephens Memorial Hospital, staff searched the emergency room and found medications hidden in dirty linen bags, a trash can, and tucked into other niches, according to a police report.
Investigating officer Ernest Leduc reported that Mary Murch, 18, of Bridgton and Matthew Jarvinen, 20, also of Bridgton, tried to take medicines and syringes from the emergency room Monday and then attempted to discard the evidence.
Norway Police Chief Robert Federico said Jarvinen had been admitted to the hospital with a legitimate injury, the nature of which was confidential. Murch accompanied him.
Because the staff was busy, Jarvinen was taken to a triage room where he had access to a locked cabinet filled with drugs, Federico said.
A doctor told Federico that on a quieter day, the patient would have been treated in a room containing fewer medications, he said.
“Anytime there is an opportunity for drugs to be taken it needs to be carefully monitored,” Federico said.
Jarvinen and Murch appeared to have had inside knowledge about the drugs’ whereabouts, he said. “Most people wouldn’t realize where they were stored. They knew where things were,” he said.
Hospital officials said they could not discuss the incident.
Federico did not have information on the specific medicines taken.
During his investigation, Leduc was told by nurse Crystal Perfect that another nurse had seen Jarvinen rummaging through cabinets and a cart. When the two nurses checked the cart, they found the lock tags broken and all the medicines in the cart missing. Another nurse did an inventory of the room and found even more drugs missing, Leduc wrote.
Perfect told Leduc that Jarvinen was then detained by security personnel, the officer reported.
Both Murch and Jarvinen denied stealing drugs when questioned by police, according to the report.
“Matthew said he didn’t know anything about missing drugs or missing syringes, stating that he and Mary Murch had planned to steal them but changed their minds when they got to the hospital,” Leduc wrote. Murch offered a similar story, according to the police report.
“Upon further questioning, Mary produced several of the missing drugs from inside her bra and said more were in the trash can,” Leduc wrote.
A search through the trash revealed two sealed spinal needles and a drug ID book, according to Leduc. More syringes were found outside the back door, after an X-ray technician reported seeing them being thrown out, the officer wrote.
Police charged Murch and Jarvinen with criminal attempt and theft. The each posted $1,000 bail and are scheduled to appear in 11th District Court in Paris in late November. The hospital asked that the two be given criminal trespass notices to not return to the hospital, Leduc wrote.
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