Woman accused of stealing money from assisted living center, switching out medications

IDAHO FALLS — A 35-year-old Idaho Falls woman is accused of using a company credit card to make unauthorized charges and allegedly replaced prescription medications from elderly people within her care.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by the Idaho Falls Police Department, an officer was called to an assisted living center in Idaho Falls in reference to a theft back in August. Charges against Ashley Allison were filed in October.

The owner of the assisted living center told the officer that an employee working for him misused the company credit card and made several unauthorized transactions. He also said Allison had stolen 190 hydrocodone/acetaminophen 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 that 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.

An officer interviewed Allison. She said she believed the owner was being vindictive due to her quitting.

The officer asked Allison if she had access to the bubble-packing material to put the residents’ medications in. She told the officer multiple people had access to it.

She said 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 a 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 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. The handwriting was Allison’s.

The officer asked her 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. She then hesitated and told the officer that she did not do that. She said somebody must of re-bubble packed it and slapped her handwritten label on it.

The officer asked Allison if she would take a polygraph, and she agreed to set up an appointment. Documents do not indicate if she took the polygraph.

The assisted living center staff told the officer in interviews 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 to use for emergencies in case they ran out of food or if she needed to buy more items for the facility.

He noticed that the money she had spent on the credit card had increased significantly, according to documents. 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 what Allison said about the charges did not line up with what the owner and the other members of the staff said. For example, the officer asked Allison about a Ross charge that was over $100, and she said she took it upon herself to buy a spa package for one of the staff members, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. But the woman who had supposedly received the gift said Allison had given her only a card and a small candle.

Allison has been charged with two felonies, including grand theft and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and forgery. She was additionally charged with misdemeanor abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult.

Her bond was originally set at $40,000 and later reduced to $10,000. Court records show she was sent to pretrial supervision after posting bond.

She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. at the Bonneville County Courthouse.