Judge STUNNED When Guilty Nurse Keeps Claiming She Did Nothing Wrong

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The matter was referred for a pre-sentence report and a drug and alcohol evaluation. We are set for sentencing today. Those evaluations have been completed. The state has had the opportunity to review those reports. The state of Ohio is prepared to proceed today, Your Honor. And just for the record, the defendant does have 12 days of jail time credit at this time. [00:00:22] Speaker 2: All right, Mr. Fatigo. [00:00:23] Speaker 3: Good afternoon, Your Honor. I've had an opportunity to view the PSR and the psychiatric evaluation of the case. We're ready to go forward. Go ahead. As you can see from the report, Ms. Jernacek has no prior criminal history, no convictions of any kind, I don't believe. There is a joint rep for community control sanctions here. We'd ask the court to consider imposing the recommendation included in the psych evaluation. Mr. Jernacek was in a couple of abusive relationships when her marriage, the other relationship that just ended a month or so ago. I think she would benefit for some counseling to deal with the trauma from those experiences. But, again, we'd ask for community control sanctions with the recommendations concerned in being on a psychiatric report. [00:01:22] Speaker 2: All right, Mr. Jernacek, what do you want to tell me? [00:01:31] Speaker 4: Mr. Jernacek, what do you want me to do? What are you asking me? [00:01:34] Speaker 2: What? Mr. Jernacek, what are you asking me? You can say anything you want for me to consider before I sentence you. So, what would you like to tell me? [00:01:43] Speaker 4: I've already started bettering myself and making sure I'm committed to never putting myself in a position like this ever again. [00:01:53] Speaker 2: And what do you mean putting yourself in a position? [00:01:57] Speaker 4: Just being around good people and being a good person and helping others. [00:02:05] Speaker 2: What about the situation with Ms. Myers? [00:02:15] Speaker 4: What would you like to know? [00:02:18] Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to know what happened. [00:02:23] Speaker 4: I entered a guilty plea, not because I'm admitting necessarily guilt, but I understood. [00:02:32] Speaker 2: Well, sure you are, because I asked you the question. Yeah. If you understood that by entering a guilty plea, you were fully admitting your guilt to the offense. So, you didn't do anything with regard to Ms. Myers? Are you telling me you administered the drug to her as you were supposed to? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But it didn't show up in her test the following day? Correct. Why is that? [00:03:04] Speaker 4: The lab report that I have also states that her other medications that she took, even the morning of the drug test, were not in her urine as well. [00:03:13] Speaker 2: Okay. Are you telling me that, what can you tell me about the patent situation? [00:03:29] Speaker 4: There wasn't a situation. I did my job fully as I'm supposed to. [00:03:35] Speaker 2: And what about the Lucci situation? [00:03:39] Speaker 4: Same thing. [00:03:40] Speaker 2: What are we doing here? Why are we here for sentencing if you didn't do anything? [00:03:48] Speaker 4: I wanted to do a plea with the Alford plea. But it wasn't an Alford plea. Right. I didn't have necessarily proper education or counsel on this. [00:04:06] Speaker 2: Oh, sure you did. I mean, this guy's a really good lawyer. I've known him for 20 years. [00:04:13] Speaker 4: I think it was maybe a conflict. [00:04:15] Speaker 2: Ten of it sitting here. Ten of it before that, having cases with him, against him. Okay. So he knows exactly what he's doing. He's very smart. Very good at what he does. [00:04:27] Speaker 4: I agree. I just... Now... [00:04:30] Speaker 2: Do you have a problem with drugs? No. Have you ever had a problem with drugs? [00:04:41] Speaker 4: No. [00:04:41] Speaker 2: Why did you take that the lot at home on that one occasion? [00:04:45] Speaker 4: It was just an accident. And I admitted it and I took it back. [00:04:50] Speaker 2: How did it get in your bag if it was just an accident? [00:04:54] Speaker 4: From after watching the videos. I had carried it around with me. [00:04:59] Speaker 2: Why would you carry a drug around with you instead of just taking it where you get it from and administer it? Why would you carry it around? [00:05:08] Speaker 4: So my employer, I was going to give it to her when I was clocking out in that morning. Plus, I had COVID. That morning, it was a snowstorm and management didn't come in. I had worked like five or six shifts in a row, different hours and schedules. And that was the third shift that I was leaving. And it just went in my bag with the rest of my paperwork and stuff. And when they were calling me, I was sleeping from being up. And when I finally answered the call, I didn't think I had it, but I dumped my bag out and it was in there, which I looked at. Who's Dr. Demagon? Pain management. Have you ever seen Demagon? I did for six months. [00:06:02] Speaker 2: When? [00:06:04] Speaker 4: Like eight, ten years ago, maybe. What drugs did he prescribe to you? Percocet. [00:06:10] Speaker 2: And how long did you take Percocet? [00:06:13] Speaker 4: For the six months. [00:06:14] Speaker 2: When was that? What year was that? [00:06:19] Speaker 4: I'm really not sure. It was quite a long time ago, though. [00:06:25] Speaker 2: Did you develop a Percocet habit? [00:06:28] Speaker 4: No. [00:06:29] Speaker 2: It seems like you and I and maybe other people are in parallel universes, because you don't seem very attached to reality on this situation. Because you clearly did what you were alleged to have done. You didn't take the Dilaudid by mistake. Okay. [00:07:09] Speaker 4: It was never even opened. Yeah. [00:07:11] Speaker 2: Well, you make it very difficult for me. I apologize. Because, well, I don't know that an apology is appropriate. I mean, it's just the way it is. It's not my intention. Because you clearly did a lot of things wrong with the intention of taking those drugs, to use those drugs. And my opinion, as I objectively sit here and look at this, and everything else, everything that happened, you've got an excuse for. A well-thought-out excuse that doesn't make any sense on any of these occasions. It just doesn't. I think the Lucci thing, you have a medication in the book when you weren't even there. Well, how is that possible? [00:08:10] Speaker 4: It wasn't. It was like I wrote the date backwards or something on the book. And none of this, I never had any problem until I told them I was going in front of the board of nursing. And literally within 10 days, they started telling me that I did this with this person and this with this person. And then again, tried to fire me again. I had reached out to the board. I drove there and had a meeting. I had begged them not to please not let me tell my employer because this is going to start all over again. And within a week, it did. I told my employer on the 18th of April of 23 that I was going in front of the board. I went in front of the board on the 21st. And by the time I came back on the second or the third was my first write-up for Mr. Lucci. [00:09:10] Speaker 2: For which you did nothing improper. [00:09:15] Speaker 4: The bosses sat me down. We went over it. I believe I got an education or I think it was an education. What does that mean? Just where they go over the steps, the process of signing things out and... [00:09:32] Speaker 2: Why? Because you did something improper? [00:09:35] Speaker 4: I wrote the date or the time backwards or something like that. [00:09:40] Speaker 2: I mean, the tone of this whole thing is that your ex-husband was out to get you. The ex-boyfriend was out to get you. The nursing home was out to get you. Your phone was hacked. Your email was hacked. And all that added up to a big setup where you ended up with a criminal conviction. That seems to be the tone of things. You don't have... Do you have a problem with marijuana? [00:10:18] Speaker 4: No. [00:10:18] Speaker 2: No? Did you ever have a problem with marijuana? No, sir. No. [00:10:21] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:10:34] Speaker 2: So, your psych report, they say you meet the criteria for cannabis use disorder. Due to your history of use, starting around your early 20s, with the last use being seven or eight months ago. Is that true? [00:10:52] Speaker 4: Yes. [00:10:53] Speaker 2: Okay. [00:10:54] Speaker 4: It was just on occasion. [00:10:57] Speaker 2: Why? [00:11:04] Speaker 4: I'm not sure why. [00:11:09] Speaker 2: So, I don't know what I'm... There's a joint recommendation for community control. And I'm wondering, what am I supposed to do with you on... What conditions am I supposed to impose upon you on community control if there's nothing wrong? If there's nothing to rehabilitate, what am I supposed to... Why would I put you on community control? I mean, part of the machinations of these statutes is to punish you and to rehabilitate you. What's to rehabilitate if there's nothing to rehabilitate? [00:11:47] Speaker 4: I believe that... I think differently than other people, and I think talking to a counselor or a psychiatrist would be helpful. For what? For what purpose? Just to deal with things. Like, I have time management issues, organization issues. When someone asks me, like, the year or time, I really can't say. I don't know if it's I don't pay attention or if I'm just different than other people. I'm not sure. [00:12:34] Speaker 2: Okay. Well, that's not even what I'm talking about. I mean, there are a series of facts in this case, which add up to you doing exactly what they accused you of doing. And you seem either reluctant or unable to accept reality. So there's a detachment from reality here that gets in the way of any rehabilitation. Because you clearly were taking drugs that you attributed to patients. And my pretty good guess is you were taking them because you have some problem with drugs that may or may not have developed through your association with demigod. That's pretty clear to me. Now, you are either unable to accept that that's happened or unwilling to accept that that's happened. It's one of those two things. I mean, when somebody is on probation for the purposes of rehabilitation, the point is to rehabilitate. And if the person believes there's nothing to rehabilitate, then probation isn't going to work because they're not going to follow what needs to be done. I mean, why are we going to go through the process of that if it's set up for failure from the word go? [00:14:36] Speaker 4: I don't believe that it will be set up for failure. [00:14:38] Speaker 2: Well, if I put you on probation, I'm going to have you go for a further psychiatric evaluation, for a further drug and alcohol evaluation. [00:14:51] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:14:52] Speaker 2: And my pretty concerted guess is that they're going to order some treatment on both ends. You don't think you have either of those problems. Therefore, you're not going to engage in the treatment. And we'll be right back here because you haven't complied. That's the problem we face right now. [00:15:19] Speaker 4: I would comply. I think counseling would be good. [00:15:27] Speaker 2: Well, so do I. But based on everything you've said in these reports and what you told me up until now, I mean, those are kind of empty words coming from you because you don't think there's a problem. [00:15:46] Speaker 4: That's why I think something might be wrong with me. [00:15:52] Speaker 2: I guess there's, again, there's no question that you took those. You signed out those drugs representing them to be administered to other patients, and you didn't do that, okay? I guess the only thing that can be said for you at this point is that you didn't deprive these people of drugs that they should have gotten. So you at least had the sense to falsify on the side that didn't harm the patients. [00:16:30] Speaker 4: That's why I had to ask the witness, but I didn't ever think that he was going to say he didn't remember. [00:16:40] Speaker 2: Ms. Blake. [00:16:42] Speaker 1: Your Honor, the State of Ohio entered into an agreement with the defendant in this case to recommend community control, and that was based on the defendant having no criminal history. It was based on the fact that the defendant, outside of this issue with Dilaudid, seemingly has the ability to be a productive member of society and to potentially do positive things. It was based on the defendant complying with her conditions of bond post-plea, once the court reinstated her bond. And it appears that those things are still true. So, again, the state certainly shares the same concern that the court has about the lack of accountability here. But we do have an agreement with the defendant in this case, pursuant to plea negotiations to ask this court to adopt a jointly recommended sentence of community control. And I would ask that you do that. I do want to point one thing out about the nursing home staff in this case, Your Honor. You heard from one of the members of that staff, the assistant director of nursing, Ms. Mussel. And the defendant has said here today that the nursing home staff was out to get her once they became aware of her prior conduct in Wycliffe. That could not be further from the truth. The nursing home staff, and we talked to every single one of them. We went out to Vista Springs. They were very, very hesitant to fire Ms. Jernacek. She was an at-will employee. They could have fired her just to fire her. They could have done that, but they didn't want to do that. They all expressed to us the severity of ruining her career, and they didn't want to do that without being sure of their suspicions. So they took those steps to investigate what was going on, and they did not want to ruin her career. And to a man, Your Honor, every single person that we spoke to told us, and this was unsolicited, they told us that Mr. Jernacek was well-liked and that she was a good nurse. And so that means one of two things to me. It either means that that was the act she put on so she could get away with this conduct, or it means she really, truly has that potential. And I'm hoping it's the latter. We're going to ask that you give her the opportunity on community control to hopefully prove that it is the latter. And I would defer to you, Your Honor, with respect to any sanctions that the court deems appropriate as part of her community control. Thank you. [00:19:01] Speaker 2: Okay. I reviewed the pre-sentence report, the psychiatric evaluation. The details from the Ohio Attorney General report, I reviewed several letters in support of you that were submitted. All of which paint a very, uh, positive picture of you, as reflected by what Ms. Blake said about co-workers. Okay. So your problem is not that you're a, uh, not that you're a bad person, not that you're not a hard worker. It's that you've got some problems, either psychiatric and or drugs or drugs and alcohol, drugs, that you just refuse to recognize or don't want to accept, okay? Until you do that, you're going to have continuing problems. That's just reality, all right? And it isn't going to, I mean, I could tell you that 10 more times and you're not going to believe me, all right? It's going to take you recognizing that. Whether you do it or not is completely in your control. So I've considered all the applicable statutes. I'm going to place you on community control for four years. You're going to serve 12 days in jail with credit for 12. You're going to have no drugs or alcohol and you'll be screened. I want you to get a, uh, psychiatric evaluation and follow all the recommendations. I want you to get a drug and alcohol evaluation, follow all the recommendations, maintain and obtain full employment, verifiable full employment. You're going to see only one doctor. If you need more than one doctor, you have to inform the probation department of who that is. One dentist and one pharmacy for any prescription medication. You're going to take medication only as it's prescribed. You're going to sign releases so probation can get your records and you're going to pay the cost and supervision fees in this case. Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:20] Speaker 1: Um, with regards to employment, um... [00:21:22] Speaker 2: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:24] Speaker 1: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:25] Speaker ?: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:25] Speaker 1: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:26] Speaker 2: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:31] Speaker ?: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:33] Speaker 2: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:38] Speaker ?: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:21:39] Speaker 2: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? 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Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:22:38] Speaker 2: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:22:39] Speaker 3: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:22:40] Speaker ?: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:22:41] Speaker 2: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:22:52] Speaker 5: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:22:58] Speaker 3: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:23:22] Speaker 5: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:23:37] Speaker 3: Ms. Crook, any other terms? [00:23:38] Speaker 5: Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms? Ms. Crook, any other terms?