Charges dropped against nurse in stolen debit card case, say attorney and DA

This case of mistaken identity swept up an innocent Nassau nurse who was arrested in May and suspended for five months by her nursing home employer before investigators dropped all charges after wrongly claiming she had looted about $30,000 with a stolen debit card, her lawyer said Wednesday.

Florencia Exinvil, 28, of Elmont, a charge nurse who was treating patients stricken with COVID-19, was arrested in Mineola during a traffic stop in mid-May and charged with first-degree identity theft, nine counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, Nassau police said at the time.

"This was a rough deal for her … she’s happy to move on with her life," the nurse’s lawyer, Chauncey Henry of Garden City, said by telephone.

The debit card had been stolen from a 58-year-old Great Neck woman, and the unauthorized withdrawals from her Chase Bank accounts took place between April 1 and 2, police said.

However, the nurse’s lawyer said Exinvil’s time sheets and other evidence he uncovered, including the dates and times she signed out medicines and the amount of time it would have taken her to drive to and from her workplace to the bank demonstrated she was not the culprit — as did interviews with her co-workers.

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Wednesday that all charges had been dismissed; in these circumstances, records are sealed. The Nassau police department, which did not say what led them to arrest the nurse in May, had no immediate comment.

"We applaud the district attorney for looking into the investigation, what I presented," Henry said.