Legal Commentary

"Ms Hepatitis C" Pleads Guilty, Agrees to 20 Year Sentence

By Jeralyn

Kristen Parker, the hospital surgical tech infected with Hepatitis C, who stole syringes filled with Fentanyl intended for surgery patients, shot herself up, and then filled her dirty syringes with saline and replaced them on the rack in the OR, exposing thousands of patients to Hepatitis C and infecting at least 16, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Denver, agreeing to a 20 year sentence. Her trial was scheduled to begin Monday.

The plea agreement (which I just read but won't post in its entirety unless the MSM does) states the parties have agreed to a a 20 year sentence under Rule 11 ©(1)(c.) Her guidelines for the counts to which she pleaded guilty were 235 to 293 months. Had she gone to trial on just the counts she pleaded guilty to and lost, she wouldn't have received the 3 points for acceptance of responsibility and her guidelines would have been 324 - 405 months. [More...]

According to the stipulated facts in the plea agreement, 35 of the infected patients had a match for Hepatitis C, Genotype 1b associated with Parker. More elaborate genetic sequencing testing was performed in 16 cases, and in all of them, it was determined with 97% probability that Parker was the source of these patients' infections.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 25, 2009 (boomark / email).