TRENTON – A nurse who formerly worked at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., was sentenced today for stealing thousands of prescription and non-prescription pills from the facility.

Patricia Bautista, 49, of Oxford, N.J., was sentenced to 180 days in the county jail and two years of probation by Superior Court Judge Stephen B. Rubin in Hunterdon County.  She paid $842 in reimbursement to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey for the stolen drugs.  Bautista forfeited her job and is permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.  She pleaded guilty on June 11 to third-degree theft by unlawful taking.

Bautista is a registered nurse who was employed by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.  She was assigned to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility and the Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility, both of which are located in Clinton.  In pleading guilty, Bautista admitted that she stole over 5,780 prescription and non-prescription pills from the Edna Mahan facility.  The pills included pain medications, such as Percocet and naproxen, antibiotics such as amoxicillin, penicillin and Cipro, and over-the-counter medications and products such as ibuprofen and Vitamin D.

The pills, which were in containers bearing labels identifying the Edna Mahan facility as their place of origin, were found in the home in East Stroudsburg, Pa., that Bautista formerly shared with her estranged husband. They were turned over to the New Jersey State Police by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.  The State Police charged her by summons on May 10.

Supervising Deputy Attorney General Anthony A. Picione, Deputy Chief of the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau, and Deputy Attorney General Victor Salgado took the guilty plea and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice.  The case was investigated by Detectives Kenneth Lutz and Brian Murphy of the New Jersey State Police Official Corruption Bureau.  The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division assisted.

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