Woman takes Alford plea after reportedly stealing money from assisted living center and switching out patients’ narcotics for Tylenol
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IDAHO FALLS – A 36-year-old woman took an Alford plea on Monday after reportedly using a company credit card to make unauthorized charges and switching out elderly patients’ narcotics with Tylenol.
Ashley Elizabeth Allison took an Alford plea on Monday to an amended charge of criminal possession of a financial transaction card or number in front of District Judge Michael Whyte.
An Alford plea is a guilty plea where a defendant continues to assert their innocence but admits a jury would likely find them guilty with the evidence presented.
RELATED | Woman accused of stealing money from assisted living center, switching out medications
Allison was originally charged and pleaded not guilty to felony grand theft, felony obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or forgery, and misdemeanor abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult.
As part of a plea agreement, Allison agreed to take an Alford plea to the amended charge, and the prosecution agreed to drop the remaining charges, recommend probation, and not oppose a withheld judgment at sentencing.
Allison’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 2 at 2 p.m.
Background of the case
In October 2022, an Idaho Falls Police officer was called to an assisted living center in Idaho Falls about a theft.
The owner of the assisted living center told the officer an employee working for him had been misusing the company credit card and made several unauthorized transactions.
He also said Allison had stolen 190 hydrocodone pills, which are typically used to relieve pain, from the elderly residents that she took care of at the facility, according to documents.
When Allison came to work on Aug. 5, she put together four residents’ medication packets, put them in bubble packs, dropped them off at the medication cart, and quit, the owner said.
The next day, when the medication was being dispensed, employees noticed the pills were off, according to documents. When employees investigated, they found out that all the hydrocodone for four of the residents had been replaced with Tylenol.
During an interview with Allison, she reportedly stated the assisted living center’s owner was vindictive due to her quitting.
When asked if Allison had access to the bubble-packing material to put the residents’ medications in, she stated multiple people had access to it.
According to Allison, all the narcotic-type medication came from the pharmacy and was already prepackaged in bubble packs.
The officer asked her if she or any of the staff would have any reason to remove the narcotic medication from the pharmacy bubble pack and then repackage them in another bubble pack at the facility and print off a label, documents said. She said no.
The day Allison quit, she reportedly brought bubble packs and repackaged medication, according to court documents. Employees noticed that instead of a computer printout of what the medication was, it was handwritten in Allison’s handwriting.
The officer asked if it was her handwriting on the label and asked about one of the bubble packs to see if she had repackaged it. She said she did.
The officer asked her why she repackaged it. She then hesitated and told the officer that she did not do that. She said somebody must have re-bubble packed it and slapped her handwritten label on it.
The officer asked Allison if she would take a polygraph, and she agreed. Documents do not indicate if she ever took the polygraph.
In interviews, the assisted living center staff told the officer that they had no access to the facility’s bubble packs — those were locked up in Allison’s office.
An employee said it was standard protocol for all narcotic medications that came from the pharmacy to be handed over to Allison, and she would distribute them to the medical carts.
The owner said Allison had been working for him for more than two years, she had been a good employee, and he had trusted her. He eventually gave her a company credit card for emergencies in case they ran out of food or if she needed to buy more items for the facility.
According to documents, the owner noticed that the money Allison had spent on the credit card had increased significantly. There were unauthorized charges to places like Foot Locker, Amazon Prime, Fuji Hibachi, Sparklight, and Ross.
Unauthorized charges were more than $3,000, according to documents.
Police said Allison’s story did not align with what the owner and the other staff members said.
For example, the officer asked Allison about a Ross charge over $100, and she said she took it upon herself to buy a spa package for a staff member diagnosed with breast cancer. But the woman who supposedly received the gift said Allison had given her only a card and a small candle.