Police: Plainview nurse stole, used drugs

A nurse working at an AHRC center in Plainview was arrested Thursday after an investigation revealed she had been stealing medications from the center and using them while on duty for a year, police said.

Nassau County police said Theresa Pawlowski, 57, of 14 Kirgan Ct., East Rockaway, had been using syringes containing Diastat, a diazepam gel, while working at the AHRC's Helen Kaplan center on Washington Avenue.

Police said Pawlowski took the suppository syringes from locked cabinets while on duty as the overnight nurse in charge of developmentally disabled adults with severe medical needs. She then put back the empty syringes. It was not clear if she was the only nurse on duty at the time.

Pawlowski was arrested after she surrendered to police at the Second Precinct. She was released on $1,500 bail Friday after being arraigned on first-degree reckless endangerment, fourth-degree grand larceny, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and endangering incompetent persons. She is due back in court Jan. 5.

Her Garden City attorney, Peter Menoudakos Jr., said Pawlowski does not have a drug problem and denies stealing the drugs. "We'll fight the charges," he said.

Diastat is used in emergencies to stop seizures and can be habit-forming, according to the National Library of Medicine's website.

Police said Pawlowski used the drugs between Nov. 10, 2010, and Nov. 9, 2011.

Menoudakos said he and his client were taken by surprise Friday at three charges because detectives had mentioned only grand larceny in arrangements for Pawlowski's surrender.

"One of the patients had a seizure and the drug wasn't there or something," the attorney said. "This is all new to us, and my client is distraught over the situation."

One of Pawlowski's jobs was to check the expiration dates of drugs, Menoudakos said, but several others at the center also had keys to the locked cabinets.