Colorado nurse's aide accused of stealing dying patients' meds loses license, gets convicted

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) -- The Colorado State Board of Nursing has revoked the license of a drug-pilfering nurse's aide whom was the focus of a FOX31 Problem Solvers investigation late last year.

Since then, former Lakewood resident, 39-year-old Euphama Jane Martinek, has also been arrested, charged with two crimes and then pleaded guilty to one of those.

Court records show the Jefferson County prosecutor hit Martinek with a felony charge of theft from an at-risk person, less than $500, plus a misdemeanor charge of neglect of an at-risk victim. She agreed to plead guilty on the lesser crime to avoid jail time.

FOX31 spoke with independent witnesses and uncovered public records which alleged that starting in May, Martinek was stealing medications from sick, dying patients at the nursing home where she worked.

Part of the evidence against her included a number of detailed pictures, provided to both FOX31 and police, which showed bottles of medications, pill packets, and syringes on Martinek's coffee table at her rental home.

Some of the packets and bottles had labels removed; others were still stamped with patients' names, dates of prescriptions and from which pharmacy the pills were obtained. FOX31 traced some of the medications back to a Lakewood nursing home: the Western Hills Care Center.

Martinek worked at the facility and cared for one of her victims, Leo Armenta. The 90-year-old great-grandfather's name was on several of the prescriptions shown inside Martinek's residence. Armenta's family told police they “suspected” Leo did not come home with all his medications, but until FOX31 and Lakewood police asked, the family never thought to complain. Armenta died last year following a medical rehabilitation stint at Western Hills.