Former Hettinger nursing home employee arraigned in Oxycodone theft case

Jason R. O'Day, The Dickinson Press, N.D.
·2 min read

Nov. 4—HETTINGER, N.D. — As

reported

in late September, Bowman resident Karen Woodbury, 36, was arrested and charged with the alleged theft of pain medication from Western Horizons Care Center — the nursing home she worked at. Woodbury was initially charged with possession of a schedule II controlled substance (Oxycodone), a class B felony, and theft of property (Ocxycodone and Furosemide), class C felony.

Woodbury was arraigned on Thursday, Nov. 3 at the Adams County Courthouse. Southwest District Judge William Herauf ruled that the prosecution had met the low burden of probable cause necessary to move the case forward to trial.

The defense entered a plea of "not guilty" on both charges and a court pretrial conference was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 17, followed by a felony jury trial to begin in early February.

Less than a week before the arraignment hearing on Thursday, the class B felony charge was reduced to the charge of possession of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor.

Woodbury was released on bond in October following her initial arrest.

During the arraignment, Chief Deputy and Detective Jeffrey Gooss of the Adams County Sheriff's Department testified in court that Woodbury stole the Oxycodone pills from an emergency medicine kit and attempted to cover up the alleged theft by replacing them with Furosemide — a diuretic medication known colloquially as Lasix.

In an interview with law enforcement following her arrest, Gooss testified that the defendant, "admitted to taking medication out of the kit. She explained that she had at that point been sick and needed them."

Gooss then explained a series of texts between Woodbury and another woman, Ciara Tranmer, that the prosecution will argue shows the defendant's intent to cover up the crime.

"Ms. Woodbury was an employee at the nursing home and she was having a count of the emergency kit with another individual... she was asking Ciara for some replacement narcotics before (that) count," Gooss testified.

Tranmer faces charges of child endangerment, a class C felony, and possession of a controlled substance in an unrelated matter.

Woodbury is being represented by Kevin McCabe, of Dickinson and the prosecution is being led by Adams County State's Attorney Aaron Roseland.