A hearing officer has upheld the Nevada prison system's decision to suspend for a week an employee who failed to make sure prisoners took their medicine.
Patricia Moore was assigned to Northern Nevada Correctional Center to see that prisoners actually took the medicines they were given by the prison infirmary.
Officials said many of the medications were for mental problems and inmates who didn't take them could cause serious problems.
The investigation showed that she wasn't properly inspecting the inmates as they left the "pill window." A number of the pills were found along the prison fence line at one point.
Hearing Officer David Kladney agreed with Moore that there were questions whether she and others were properly trained in how to do the inspections and questions about the prison's policies on the inspections.
But he ruled there was no doubt she lied about properly inspecting the mouths of those inmates and, even when given opportunities to correct her statements and tell the truth, continued to lie about it.
"The lack of honesty and truthfulness in this case hurt everyone the employee became involved with regarding the duty she was employed to do," he ruled.
Kladney upheld the five-day suspension prison officials ordered for Moore.
